By Emily Schmall
The Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas — An American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus felt a deep calling to work in Liberia and was exhausted after months of treating patients with the deadly disease.
Kent Brantly’s mother, Jan Brantly, says her 33-year-old son’s “heart is in Africa.” She says he comes from a long line of physicians and missionaries.
The director of maternal-child health at JPS Health Network where Brantly completed his residency just months before heading to West Africa has been in touch by phone and email.
Dr. David Mcray says Brantly had been working for months when he contracted the disease. Mcray says Brantly has told him he is “terrified.”
Mcray says Brantly’s prognosis is grave. The doctor is suffering fever, headache and abdominal pain in an isolation unit for Ebola patients on the outskirts of Liberia’s capital.