A doctor’s mistaken Ebola test: ‘We were celebrating. Then everything fell apart’

[Little Star]

When Martin Salia’s Ebola test came back negative, his friends and colleagues threw their arms around him. They shook his hand. They patted him on the back. They removed their protective gear and cried.

But when his symptoms remained nearly a week later, Salia took another test, on Nov. 10. This one came back positive, sending the Sierra Leonean doctor with ties to Maryland on a desperate, belated quest for treatment and forcing the colleagues who had embraced him into quarantine.

“We were celebrating. If the test says you are Ebola-free, we assume you are Ebola-free,” said Komba Songu M’Briwa, who cared for Salia at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center in Freetown. “Then everything fell apart.”

Salia is now in critical condition at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, his family left to wonder what would have happened if he had received earlier treatment.

His wife, Isatu, lives in New Carrollton, and they have two children, 12 and 20, also living in the United States. He has been a visitor to their Maryland home but has devoted most of his time to his medical work in Freetown.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a-doctors-mistaken-ebola-test-we-were-celebrating--then-everything-fell-apart/2014/11/16/946a84da-6dd5-11e4-a2c2-478179fd0489_story.html?tid=pm_pop

Yikes!

[simak]

1. That's tragic.

I read that he's in worse shape than anyone they've saved here so far. One can only wonder how things might be different if they had confirmed the infection sooner.

[Little Star]

2. Lets just hope they can pull off a miracle for him.

[Little Star]

3. OMG...

He died?

ABC News
Nov 17, 2014, 8:23 AM ET
Ebola-Stricken Surgeon Dr. Martin Salia Dies in Nebraska

Dr. Martin Salia, who contracted Ebola in Africa and was later flown to the United States, has died, officials with Nebraska Medical Center said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ebola-stricken-surgeon-dr-martin-salia-dies-nebraska/story?id=26964778

[Yo_Mama]

5. Yes, he died.

He was just too far gone - he came in on a ventilator and dialysis, there was nothing they could have done.

[PADemD]

4. Important to Know

The doctors who tended to him here appeared to be unaware that an early Ebola test — taken within the first three days of the illness — is often inconclusive.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a-doctors-mistaken-ebola-test-we-were-celebrating--then-everything-fell-apart/2014/11/16/946a84da-6dd5-11e4-a2c2-478179fd0489_story.html?tid=pm_pop

[Little Star]

6. Seems the world is still on a learning curve.

[LisaL]

7. That's a wrong thing to assume.

First Ebola test can be negative due to low virus concentration at the beginning.
That's what we have been told. So why would people carrying for Ebola patients not know that?

[Little Star]

8. Good point LisaL!

[B2G]

9. I don't get that either

Kent Brantley tested negative in his first test. When he was definitely symptomatic.

[GliderGuider]

10. It's human nature.

They wanted to believe he was negative so badly, they deluded themselves. Add a dash of group-think, and pretty soon you've got a circle of denial operating.

It's the same psychological mechanism that keeps climate change deniers going even through the mounting waves of evidence.