The freelance NBC News cameraman who was diagnosed in Liberia with the Ebola virus arrived in the United States early Monday on his way to get treatment at an Nebraska hospital. Ashoka Mukpo left Liberia on a specially-equipped airplane at just before 5:30 p.m. ET (9:30 p.m. local time), officials said.
The jet made a brief refueling stop in Bangor, Maine, early Monday before heading to Omaha.
Mukpo, 33, is the fifth American diagnosed with Ebola. He was hired Tuesday to be a second cameraman for NBC News Chief Medical Editor and Correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman. He tested positive for Ebola on Thursday. Snyderman, who spoke with Mukpo on the phone Saturday morning, said he was in 'great spirits' - and in a positive sign, she said, he was eating and drinking on his own.
Mukpo's father, Dr. Mitchell Levy, said his eldest child had been anxious to leave Liberia. 'He is counting the minutes,' Levy, an ICU doctor, told NBC News Sunday morning. Levy said his son, whom he spoke to on the phone early Sunday, told him he was 'just trying to get through to the moment I get on that plane.'
In the meantime, Levy said, Mukpo is feeling 'not that ill.' Mukpo's parents and his girlfriend, who is from England, were due to fly to Nebraska on Sunday to be with him.
The Nebraska Medical Center, regarded as one of the few health facilities in the U.S. with expertise in Ebola, also treated American doctor Rick Sacra, who contracted Ebola while working with the relief organization SIM. Sacra, 51, was declared virus-free and discharged from the hospital Sept. 25. He was admitted to a Boston hospital Saturday for what doctors believe is pneumonia.
Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit at the Nebraska Medical Center told NBC News 'the encouraging thing is that ... we are learning about (Ebola) as we go, we have all the special equipment that we can bring in here to deal with somebody in the isolation unit, and the results in the United States have been better than in Africa.'
IN-DEPTH - Kate Snow and Daniel Arkin
First published October 5 2014, 8:08 AM
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