EBOLA UPDATE: In the U.S., a Good Report; In Liberia, Help from an American Doctor and Deacon

VERY GOOD NEWS today out of Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, where nurse Amber Vinson shows no sign of Ebola in her most recent blood tests.

NBC News carried a statement from Vinson’s mother, Debra Berry, last night which said,

“Amber and our family are ecstatic to receive this latest report on her condition.   We all know that further treatment will be necessary as Amber continues to regain strength, but these latest developments have truly answered prayers and bring our family one step closer to reuniting with her at home.”

Amber won’t be leaving the hospital just yet, but things certainly are going in the right direction.  Hopefully, Amber Vinson will soon follow in the footsteps of Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, American aid workers who contracted Ebola while serving in Liberia, and who have been discharged and reunited with their families.

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MEANWHILE IN LIBERIA, an American doctor who is also a Roman Catholic deacon is helping to train medical staff to provide safe, effective treatment for Ebola victims while protecting themselves from the dreaded disease.

Dr. Timothy Flanigan is an infectious disease specialist at Brown University and a deacon at St. Christopher and St. Theresa parishes in Tiverton, Rhode Island. “Dr. Tim,” as he is called, took a leave of absence to work for two months with Caritas Internationalis, helping to train Liberian medical staff in the capital city of Monrovia in infection control and safe practices.

I interviewed Dr. Flanigan via email for the Catholic news site Aleteia.

“One of the hardest things,” Dr. Tim explained, “is to train health care workers to provide ‘no-touch’ care.” The Liberian culture is warm and welcoming, and the typical greeting even between strangers is a hug and double-cheek kiss. For health care workers, the challenge is to show patients that their caregivers really do support and care for them, but to show them without actually touching. Among Liberians who fear the spread of disease, the customary greeting is now a proper bow from some distance away.

As a young man, Dr. Tim was inspired by Mother Teresa, whom he met in The Bronx when he was an undergrad.  “She’s my hero,” he wrote; and his oldest daughter is named after her.

He also drew on the inspirational writings of  Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. With his internet temporarily down, Dr. Tim paraphrased Lewis’ words:

“My Catholic Christian faith is not only the light that gives hope in the midst of despair (which is apt in the midst of this terrible epidemic), but our faith illuminates and changes how we see our own lives and the world around us, in much the same way that the sunrise at dawn changes how we see the world in front of us.”

Read the rest of his inspiring story at Aleteia.