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Fourth U.S. aid worker with Ebola arrives in Atlanta

 
A person in a protective suit steps out of an ambulance as an ebola patient arrives for care Tuesday in Atlanta. Two others have been successfully treated at Emory University Hospital.
A person in a protective suit steps out of an ambulance as an ebola patient arrives for care Tuesday in Atlanta. Two others have been successfully treated at Emory University Hospital.
Published Sept. 10, 2014

ATLANTA — The fourth U.S. aid worker sickened with Ebola arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday, mirroring the carefully choreographed routine of the two Americans successfully treated and released from Emory University Hospital's special isolation unit.

The latest patient — unidentified by hospital officials, who cited privacy restrictions — arrived more than a month after missionaries Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 59, were flown from Liberia. All were flown in the same specially equipped medical plane from Africa to a military air base just outside Atlanta, then taken in ambulances with police escorts to the hospital. Helicopters buzzed above, and reporters and television cameras gathered in clusters along the street. The patients wore bulky, protective suits. On Tuesday, Emory's third patient walked from the ambulance, as Brantly did. Writebol was taken in a stretcher.

The delicate process seemed to run like a well-oiled machine, attracting fewer curious onlookers and drawing less concern from the public the third time around.

Dr. Aneesh Mehta said it was a good sign that the patient was able to walk but emphasized that doctors will look at overall health and all options for a treatment plan.

The Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa has killed more than 2,200 people and has taken a high toll on health care workers there.

Another American, Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, of Worcester, Mass., was flown from Liberia last week. He is being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. His condition is improving, one of his doctors said Tuesday.