Posted on 12/29/2019 4:08:37 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
“It forced me to dig deep, find out who I really was, and rely on God’s direction in the healing process that is still ongoing to this day,” Gorman said in one of many emails and conversations over the past few months. “There were many mistakes and dark moments. But a journey that, I hope, in the end will be worth it.”
He trained as a firefighter and paramedic, then went back to school to become a physician assistant.
When Ebola broke out in West Africa, he felt a calling to help. He quit his job and volunteered with the Boston nonprofit Partners in Health, which had opened a treatment center, its first, in the Sierra Leone community of Maforki.
With the infection progressing rapidly, Gorman’s chances of survival in Sierra Leone were zero. In the NIH’s Special Clinical Studies Unit, one of the most advanced medical facilities in the world, his odds were only slightly better.
One by one, Gorman’s organs began to fail. His kidneys, his liver, his heart and his lungs were overwhelmed, his immune system unable to stop the virus, said Richard Davey, chief of NIAID’s clinical research section and Gorman’s lead physician. Gorman also developed brain inflammation.
But a computer randomized him to the control group. There would be no ZMapp for him.
Gorman’s mother sat vigil outside his room. She wasn’t allowed in, but she could see him on a video screen and talk to him through a cellphone propped next to his ear. “She would pray and read the Bible to me,” he said, though he has no recollection of it. “And just, like, talk to me and sing to me.” His father flew back and forth from Dallas. His girlfriend was there for days...
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
No thanks. There ain’t enough money in the world to make me do something like that. I’ll stay here and help my neighbors.
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PTSD.
Not to take away from this story, but I’m thinking we all suffer, from one extent to another, from PTSD.
PTSD. It’s the new normal.
What did his parents do that made him so angry?
Interesting read. I’m interested in knowing why he had to forgive his family, when it seems like they were nothing but supportive?
I think he was alluding to the fact that the family bonds tightly while the patient is in danger/treatment and they remain that way after recovery while the patient feels/is excluded from this tight knit group.
Thank you so much for posting this.
It’s referring to this Which is referenced in the article. Stating that recovery long after a serious illness needs more attention.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21161-post-intensive-care-syndrome-pics
Not to be insensitive,but I will anyway. Under ZERO circumstances should anybody be allowed to go to a sh*thole and come back especially from the sh*thole that has the ability to spread a societal killing Pandemic. Anything ever good come from Africa post Colonialism besides death,disease,despair and dysfunction?
As long as there is no real cure for Ebola virus-caused disease those infected will die painfully. Do not be misled. You have only one life to lose. The only hope is quarantine....enforced quarantine - to stop the spread of the disease.
Agreed. One mistake could have put us all at risk. Another Bammy screw up.
We didn’t had the resources to help them there?
Don’t bring it here, let them deal with it there, no sense in risking our lives.
Crazy that he was in the control group, does that mean he was given placebo to see how he reacted while others infected received treatment?
No I didn’t read anymore than the excerpt.
Congolese are crossing our Southern border. In droves. Unchecked. And the media is calling them ‘migrants’. Be very afraid.
"does that mean he was given placebo to see how he reacted while others infected received treatment?"
That is how it sounds.
An interesting read on several levels, take the time to take the time.
I believe he needed to be taught to feel gratitude minute by minute and to turn all of his focus to thoughts of joy and pleasure and contentment (all determined by him). The hours he spent recycling all the bad emotions gave him nothing but more bad emotions. He was truly in an emotional loop.
I’m not saying medicine can’t help the severe PTSD patient, but it has limitations. It is far more important to have someone help you inpatient every hour of the day for a couple weeks re-focus on the good. Be in the moment of eating a delicious fruit popsicle, say, slowly savoring in the present. Then watch a fun sporting event, take a walk in nature, pet a sweet animal, watch a comedy, read something uplifting, listen to great music you love, the whole day, every day, for weeks. Therapy should consist of RELIVING POSITIVE, BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES instead of wallowing in the bad feelings from illness and recovery. Yes, feel the bad feelings. But it seems he was, and had, and it was time to hold his hand to teach him how to focus on gratitude. Within or without his religion. The point is that your thoughts create your reality, and he was heavily medicated for so long, he needed 14-30 days of learning how to create POSITIVE FEELINGS. They and gratitude lead to happiness. I wish him success.
A most difficult question.
Many physicians, researchers, engineers... spend their lives working on medication, procedures, equipment... for an event such as this. They want to see it work.
No, it is not the same as developing a new toothbrush or flavored vitamin.
Some of the buildings are sealed and the air only flows one direction and before it exits is passed through a high-temperature flame. The doors look like something from a ship.
If you never use it, how can you trust the system when the need arises?
“It is far more important to have someone help you inpatient every hour of the day for a couple weeks re-focus on the good.”
I was very fortunate that after thirty months RVN and some holes in my hide an uncle hired me.
He had been WWII 42nd Infantry Division (RAINBOW) infantryman. Most of his employees were veterans and when I was a little ‘jumpy’ they understood.
I retired from a mega-corporation thousands on the campus and a few hundred in my building I knew less than ten veterans, most my age.
If someone gets ‘jumpy’, call security.
“Be in the moment of eating a delicious fruit popsicle, say, slowly savoring in the present.”
Sensory awareness exercises!
Yes, I had a therapist that walked me through them.
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