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Catholic doctor dies of Ebola


Dr Martin Salia, a American Catholic doctor who contracted the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone, died in Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on Monday. Dr Salia had been working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, which is not an Ebola treatment unit.

In an interview with United Methodist Communications earlier this year, Dr Salia who was 44, said: "I knew it wasn't going to be rosy, but why did I decide to choose this job? I firmly believe God wanted me to do it. And I knew deep within myself. There was just something inside of me that the people of this part of Freetown needed help."

"I see it as God's own desired framework for me. I took this job not because I want to, but I firmly believe that it was a calling and that God wanted me to. ... And I'm pretty sure, I'm confident that I just need to lean on him, trust him, for whatever comes in, because he sent me here. And that's my passion," Salia said.

"Whenever we want to start surgery, we pray. I am just being used as an instrument or as a surgeon to carry out God's own plan for that person's life," he added.

Dr Salia, who was born in Sierre Leone, is survived by his wife Isatu and two children aged 12 and 20. His wife said in an interview, that in her one of her last conversations with her husband over the phone, he sounded weak but they prayed together.

The World Health Organization says 570 health care workers have been infected during this epidemic, and 324 of them have died. 

Read the CNS report here: www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1404788.htm

Sources: CNS/WHO/UMC

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