US Ebola Survivor Gives Blood to New American Patient

If one person knows what Ebola patient Rick Sacra is going through, it's Kent Brantly. Both American doctors contracted the disease while doing charity work in Africa, though Brantly made a full recovery after returning to the US. To help his friend do the same, Brantly flew to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha last week and donated a pint of his blood, reports NBC News. That's considered an experimental treatment for Ebola, although the World Health Organization recommended its widespread use last week, notes Time.

In Sacra's case, it seems to be working. The president of Brantly's charity group, Samaritan's Purse, tells NBC that Sacra has since made a "dramatic turn" for the better. It's still not clear how Brantly recovered, but he, too, received blood from an Ebola survivor, along with the experimental drug ZMapp. A fourth American Ebola patient is now at Emory Hospital in Atlanta, which successfully treated both Brantly and Nancy Writebol. (More Ebola stories.)