Ebola has spoken out in his first sit-down interview while recovering
at home with his wife and three children.
The physician said that he first started feeling symptoms of the
disease at the end of July, when he came down with a low fever that
made him feel 'a little off, a little warm and a little under the
weather'.
At first, he hoped it was malaria or dengue fever, but the results
kept coming back negative until he was eventually tested for Ebola.
The positive test means death for more than 90 per cent who catch the
disease, but Dr Brantly said he never lost faith even when doctors
started to fear he wouldn't make it through the night.
The disease quickly took hold in Liberia, when he started struggling
to breathe and his body was overcome with shaking and violent shivers.
'And I said to the nurse who was taking care of me, "I'm sick. I have
no reserve. And I don't know how long I can keep this up." And I said,
"I don't know how you're going to breathe for me when I quit
breathing."
"Because that was the reality. I thought, I- I'm not gonna be able to
continue breathing this way." And they had no way to breathe for me if
I had to quit breathing," Dr Brantly recalled.
Hope finally arrived early last month, when Dr Brantly and fellow
missionary worker Nancy Writebol, 59, were flown out of Liberia for
treatment at Emory.
The two Americans were the first to receive ZMapp which helped them
fight off the disease.
Within just a few weeks, both were discharged from the hospital after
testing negative for Ebola in their blood.
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