Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died this morning, a spokesman for the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas said in a statement.
"He fought courageously in this battle," the statement, from public relations director Wendell Watson, said. "Our professionals, the doctors and nurses in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, are also grieving his passing. We have offered the family our support and condolences at this difficult time."
Duncan, who is Liberian, likely contracted Ebola when he helped carry a sick neighbor to the hospital in Monrovia. He flew from Liberia to Dallas on September 20, when he was not yet showing symptoms of the virus. After developing a fever and abdominal pain on the 24th, Duncan sought care at Texas Health Presbyterian on the 25th, but he was sent home.
He later returned to the hospital after his symptoms worsened, and he was put in isolation there on September 28. He had been receiving an experimental treatment, brincidofovir, a drug that had previously only been used to fight other viruses. There are no more remaining doses of ZMapp, the experimental drug used to treat Kent Brantly, the American doctor who was previously diagnosed with Ebola and treated in Georgia.