Doctor: I am thrilled to be alive
(CNN) - Dr. Kent Brantly walked around the room at Emory University Hospital on Thursday, hugging staff members and shaking hands.
It was like he wanted everyone to know: I'm no longer infectious. The virus is out of my system. Ebola didn't beat me.
Brantly and Nancy Writebol, another American missionary infected with Ebola in Liberia, have been discharged from the hospital. Writebol was released Tuesday and is choosing not to make public comments, according to the hospital.
- "Today is a miraculous day," Brantly said at a news conference Thursday. "I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family."
What happens when you survive Ebola?
Emory's staff is confident that the American patients' discharges pose "no public health threat," said Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory's Infectious Disease Unit. He said the reason the public was not made aware of Writebol's release immediately was that she requested her discharge not be publicly announced.
"Nancy is free of the virus, but the lingering effects of the battle have left her in a significantly weakened condition," her husband, David Writebol, said in a statement. "Thus, we decided it would be best to leave the hospital privately to be able to give her the rest and recuperation she needs at this time."
But Brantly passed along gratitude from the woman with whom he has shared a harrowing journey.
Both patients were evacuated from Liberia this month, in a plane specially equipped with an isolation tent, and accompanied by medical staff outfitted in head-to-foot protective clothing. The plane was able to take only one patient at a time and made two trips. The patients were taken to an isolation unit at Emory, where they'd been treated for the last few weeks.
As she walked out of her isolation room Tuesday, Brantly recalls Writebol saying, "To God be the glory."
Doctor: I am thrilled to be alive(CNN) - Dr. Kent Brantly walked around the room at Emory University Hospital on Thursday, hugging staff members and shaking hands.
It was like he wanted everyone to know: I'm no longer infectious. The virus is out of my system. Ebola didn't beat me.
Brantly and Nancy Writebol, another American missionary infected with Ebola in Liberia, have been discharged from the hospital. Writebol was released Tuesday and is choosing not to make public comments, according to the hospital.
- "Today is a miraculous day," Brantly said at a news conference Thursday. "I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family."
What happens when you survive Ebola?
Emory's staff is confident that the American patients' discharges pose "no public health threat," said Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory's Infectious Disease Unit. He said the reason the public was not made aware of Writebol's release immediately was that she requested her discharge not be publicly announced.
"Nancy is free of the virus, but the lingering effects of the battle have left her in a significantly weakened condition," her husband, David Writebol, said in a statement. "Thus, we decided it would be best to leave the hospital privately to be able to give her the rest and recuperation she needs at this time."
But Brantly passed along gratitude from the woman with whom he has shared a harrowing journey.
Both patients were evacuated from Liberia this month, in a plane specially equipped with an isolation tent, and accompanied by medical staff outfitted in head-to-foot protective clothing. The plane was able to take only one patient at a time and made two trips. The patients were taken to an isolation unit at Emory, where they'd been treated for the last few weeks.
As she walked out of her isolation room Tuesday, Brantly recalls Writebol saying, "To God be the glory."