Indianapolis native Dr. Kent Brantly was awarded the Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine from the American Medical Association, for his service in Liberia during last summer’s Ebola outbreak.
Brantly worked for the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse as a medical missionary at ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa) Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, from October 2013 to August 2014. After Samaritan’s Purse, the North Carolina group led by Franklin Graham, took responsibility for clinical care of all Liberian Ebola patients, Brantly was appointed medical director for the only Ebola treatment unit in southern Liberia.
On July 26, 2014, he was diagnosed with Ebola Virus Disease and several days later received the first dose of the experimental drug Zmapp. He then was evacuated for treatment at Emory University Hospital.
He recovered and later donated plasma to help others recover from Ebola, including Dallas nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, a fellow missionary physician at the ELWA Hospital, and cameraman Ashoka Mukpo.
Brantly, who graduated from Heritage Christian High School and the Indiana University School of Medicine, will donate the $2,500 he received for the award to Samaritan’s Purse.
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