Dr. Ken Brandt walked into Emory Hospital today, slowly, but on his own two feet. This followed a long flight from Liberia to Atlanta, with a stop in Maine to refuel. He flew in a specially designed isolation unit to protect the staff of the plane transporting him, and he will go into a remarkably advanced isolation unit at Emory, one designed to ensure to the very best of our extraordinary ability that no one treating this young man is exposed in any way to the Ebola virus. The unit was designed to respond in case of biological warfare, and in reality, the opportunity to treat Dr. Brandt will ensure we are all made safer in a very uncertain world. Dr. Brandt is thirty three years old, and has a wife and two young kids. He had dedicated his entire short life to serving the underserved, to healing the sick, to bringing compassion to those who have never received it, to extending the very grace of God through the hands of a physician. He has gone where the majority of us would never go, done what we would never consider doing, given what it would never occur to us to offer. He is sick with the Ebola virus, gravely ill. He may or may not survive. During his hospitalization in Africa, he spent his time in isolation, working on his laptop, trying to save his patients. His colleague, Nancy Writebol, is also sick with Ebola, and unlike Kent, Nancy is much older, sixty years old. She is a mother, and a grandmother, an unassuming, selfless, loving woman who describes herself as a humble servant of God. Nancy was in charge of disinfecting the health care workers coming out of the treatment centers. She did not need to be there. She had spent her life in service prior to this terrifying assignment. They are shining examples of that most rare of human beings, those who both hear and answer Gods call to service with absolutely no thought of their own well being. No one knows how Nancy or Kent became ill, given their extreme training and great care. Ebola is terrifying, and this is the first time it has been knowingly transferred to American soil. People have responded in many different ways, but the majority of the responses are extremely negative, arguing that these two people should never have been brought back to America, regardless of the likelihood of survival without our care. The crazies among us posit that this is a plot launched by the federal government, one which will result in a total takeover by an authoritarian force. The doctors, the nurses, the flight crew, see it differently. The flight crew brought this young doctor home, refueled and turned around to bring Nancy home as well. The nurses cancelled their vacations for the privilege of treating them. The doctors raced to say, Bring them here, let us try our very best to save them, as our best is very good. I watched one young Indian doctor tonight speak about receiving his patients. He was responding to Sanjay Gupta, who had just asked him about the wisdom of bringing the first Ebola virus case here. The young doctor waited a moment, and then he said, (paraphrased), I think this is the problem. This man, and soon his female colleague, are not Ebola cases. They are sons, they are fathers, they are husbands, they are wives, they are mothers, they are daughters. They are patients. I salute him with all of my heart, as I do his colleagues. I would also add one description which he did not mention. Dr. Kent Brandt and Nancy Writebol are Americans. Welcome home. God speed.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 03:46:41 +0000
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