ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A U.S. doctor who survived after contracting Ebola while doing missionary work in Liberia is “very close” to the doctor most recently diagnosed with the disease and has spent time in “tearful prayer” for him, according to an interview with NBC News aired Tuesday.
Earlier, officials with the North Carolina-based missionary group Serving In Mission had announced the other doctor, a male obstetrician, had contracted the disease.
In the interview, Dr. Kent Brantly said he feared his own death, telling a nurse at one point: “I’m sick. I have no reserve and I don’t know how long I can keep this up.”
At one point, Brantly was asked whether he was told he might not survive.
Ebola victim Dr. Kent Brantly and his wife Amber leave a news conference after being released from Emory University Hospital. on Aug. 21, 2014, in Atlanta.“I don’t think they ever said, ‘Kent, I think you are about to die.’ But I felt like I was about to die,” Brantly said.