The U.S. doctor who tested positive for Ebola could barely stand on his own by the time he was flown to Germany for treatment, according to a report.
Dr Peter Stafford, a medical missionary with the Christian group Serge, tested positive for the Bundibugyo ebolavirus while serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Stafford was flown to Germany for treatment on Tuesday.
Dr Scott Myhre, the East and Central Africa area director for Serge, said that Stafford looked “really sick” as he departed.
“There were people in full - we call it PPE - the personal protective equipment, and they’re completely covered, and he’s hanging on them barely strong enough to walk,” Myhre told NBC News. “He looked really tired and really sick.”
For his flight from the DRC to Germany, Stafford was placed in a tube-shaped plastic bed, according to Myhre. The bed, which was “about the size of a casket,” was designed to protect the airplane’s crew from infection.
Stafford worked at Nyankunde Hospital in the DRC’s Ituri province, where the outbreak is centered.
According to Myhre, Stafford had operated on a 33-year-old patient with severe abdominal pain just days before the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the outbreak. Doctors believed that the patient had a gallbladder infection.
However, when Stafford conducted the abdominal procedure, Myhre says that the patient’s gall bladder was normal. As a result, Stafford “closed him up,” but the patient died the next day.
Days later, they realized that the patient most likely died of Ebola but had been buried before he could be tested.
Myhre says that Stafford quarantined himself as soon as he developed symptoms, including chills, fever, muscle aches, fatigue and nausea.
“He’s a very meticulous professional, and for every surgical case he does, he would be completely gowned in sterile garb and gloves and hats and glasses,” Myhre said. “But that’s not quite enough to prevent an Ebola exposure.”
Stafford’s wife, Rebekah, is also a doctor and treated the same patient. She and the couple’s four children are now being monitored, Myhre says.
Patrick LaRochelle, another physician, is being monitored after being exposed through a second patient, but Myhre says neither LaRochelle nor Rebekah has shown signs of illness.
According to a Serge press release, Rebekah and the four children are being transported to Berlin’s Charite University Hospital, where Stafford is receiving care. LaRochelle is being transferred to Bulovka Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic.
The outbreak has been caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which is closely related to Zaire ebolavirus. The latter was responsible for the 2013-2016 West African Ebola virus epidemic.
Case fatality rates in the past two outbreaks related to the Bundibugyo virus have ranged from 30 to 50 percent, according to the WHO. The outbreak has also been labeled as a public health emergency of international concern by the organization.
The WHO has also warned that the number of suspected cases is at 600, with the number of suspect deaths sitting at 139.
