Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly has again donated blood to help treat someone fighting the virus — this time a nurse who is the first person to contract the disease within the United States, a spokesman for Samaritan’s Purse told NBC News Monday. Brantly, who still works for the aid group, traveled to Dallas on Sunday to make the donation for Nina Pham, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who helped to treat a Liberian man who died there last week, said Jeremy Blume, a spokesperson for Samaritan's Purse.
A family spokesman had reported earlier that Pham’s mother said her daughter was receiving a transfusion from a former Ebola patient. Health officials are trying to determine how Pham was infected; her role in treating the man who died in Dallas, Thomas Eric Duncan, has not been released. The family spokesman said Pham’s mother reported that her daughter is doing well and feels she is getting good treatment. She was reported in stable condition on Monday. Experts hope the antibodies in Brantly's blood will kick-start Pham's immune response to Ebola.
Brantly, who got the disease in July while treating patients in Liberia for Samaritan's Purse, also has given blood to treat at least two other people: Dr. Rick Sacra, an American who also got the virus in Liberia, and NBC News freelance camera operator Ashoka Mukpo, who was infected while covering the outbreak in West Africa. Sacra was treated at The Nebraska Medical Center, where Mukpo is currently hospitalized.
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