An American missionary who was infected with Ebola in Africa said Wednesday there were 'many dark days' during her battle with the virus and said her faith sustained her during the times she doubted she would survive.
Nancy Writebol appeared with her husband David at the U.S. headquarters of the North Carolina-based group Serving In Mission (SIM). Writebol and another American aid worker, Dr. Kent Brantly, were discharged last month from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Writebol, 59, was flown out of the west African nation of Liberia on Aug. 5, three days after Brantly. The two were infected while working at a missionary clinic outside Liberia's capital.
Writebol said that when she reached the airport in Monrovia to be flown home, she was 'very, very sick' and said that she wasn't sure she would survive the trip to Atlanta.
'(I thought) I don't even know if I'm going to make it to the U.S.,' she said. 'I don't know if I'm ever going to see my husband again.'
Writebol worked at the mission hospital and was tasked with helping make sure the doctors and nurses who were treating Ebola patients were properly dressed and decontaminated.
'It was a joy to be there,' she said. 'There was not a fear there. It was a wonderful place to be able to work and serve.'
Writebol and Brantly and received an experimental treatment called Zmapp, but it's not known whether the drug helped or whether they improved on their own, as has happened to others who have survived the disease. The treatment is so novel that it hasn't been tested in people
Writebol said that she has been asked many timed what she thinks saved her - the Zmapp, the medical care or her faith.
'My answer to that question is all of the above,' she said.
Meanwhile, SIM identified the obstetrician who has developed the Ebola virus in Liberia as Dr. Richard Sacra.
Brantly said he knew the sick doctor quite well and has prayed for him and his family, whom he said were holding up 'pretty well.'
Entities 0 Name: Liberia Count: 3 1 Name: Writebol Count: 3 2 Name: Brantly Count: 3 3 Name: U.S. Count: 2 4 Name: American Count: 2 5 Name: Atlanta Count: 2 6 Name: Dr. Richard Sacra Count: 1 7 Name: Africa Count: 1 8 Name: Emory University Hospital Count: 1 9 Name: Monrovia Count: 1 10 Name: Nancy Writebol Count: 1 11 Name: David Count: 1 12 Name: Dr. Kent Brantly Count: 1 13 Name: SIM Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/W6xChw Title: Finding Happiness At Work, All By Yourself. Description: I love to ride my bike. There's just something about being out on the road, all alone, with a simple piece of machinery, cranking out miles just to go nowhere/anywhere.
