Ebola-Infected Doctor Heading to Nebraska Medical Unit

Dr.Rick Sacra, the medical missionary who has become the third American infected with Ebola in Liberia, is being flown to a special isolation unit at The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for treatment, SIM USA said Thursday.

“Dr. Sacra is expected to arrive in Omaha Friday morning and begin treatment in the hospital’s Biocontainment Patient Care Unit,” the Christian mission group said in a statement.

“I just had a call from the doctor who put Rick on a plane to come to the United States and he said that Rick is clearly sick but that he was in good spirits and he walked onto the plane,” his wife, Debbie Sacra, told a news conference. “We are really encouraged by that news and looking forward to being reunited with him.”

“Rick is clearly sick but … he was in good spirits and he walked onto the plane.”

Health care professionals have been hard hit by Ebola, which has infected more than 3,600 people in the West African epidemic and killed half of them.

“I am overwhelmed and abundantly blessed by all the kind words that have been said about Rick,” Debbie Sacra added at the news conference held by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where Sacra works.

“We are indeed praying that Rick will stay longer with us so that he will continue the good work that he has been doing in Liberia, but he would want you to know that he would not be afraid to pass into eternal life with the Lord,” she added, choking up as she spoke.