Incredible moment 'dead' Ebola victim left in the street for days in Liberia turns out to be ALIVE as he is prepared for burial
- Unnamed 37-year-old had been left dying on a Monrovia street for days
- Locals tried to get man medical care but health workers refused to treat him
- When man eventually stopped moving it was assumed he had passed away
- Funeral workers were called to collect body but noticed he was still moving
- Realisation prompted cheers from onlookers who then demanded he be taken to hospital for the treatment he so desperately required
A man thought to have died of Ebola in the middle of a Liberian street was discovered to still be alive when funeral workers arrived to pick up his body.
The unnamed 37-year-old is said to have been dying from the virus in the open air for several days but ambulance workers in the capital Monrovia refused to treat him, local community leaders said.
Finally, following days without medical attention, the man stopped moving and funeral workers were called - although while preparing to take him for burial they noticed he was trying to move his arms.
The realistion that the man was still alive prompted cheers from the large crowd of onlookers, who then had to plead with paramedics to take the man for treatment at the hospital.
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Care: Thinking the man (pictured background, beneath blanket) had already died, ABC News reporter Dr Richard Besser was filming a piece to camera about the way the victim had not been given medical attention
'He's alive': A burial team arrived and began spraying the unnamed man - who had been covered by a blanket - with bleach. As they put hid
'body' on a stretcher, one worker noticed the man was moving his arms
Not dead: Although incredibly weak, the man could clearly be seen moving his arms to indicate he was still alive
Joy: The realistion that the man was still alive prompted cheers from the large crowd of onlookers, who then had to plead with paramedics to
take the man for treatment at the hospital
The incident occurred earlier this week in an Ebola-ravaged section of the Liberian capital Monrovia and was captured on video by ABC News.
Thinking the man had already died, reporter Dr Richard Besser was filming a piece to camera, having spoken to several community leaders about the way the victim had been abandoned without medical treatment for several days.
While the item was being recorded, a burial team arrived and began spraying the man - who had been covered by a blanket - with disinfectant and bleach.
Minutes later, as they started lifting him onto a stretcher to be placed in a mortuary vehicle, one of the funeral workers noticed he was still moving and a cry of 'He's alive' rang out.
A large crowd of onlookers then broke into cheers and applause, although the realisation initially had little impact other than the burial team dumping the critically ill man back on the floor and driving off.
An ambulance was called and this time arrived within 10 minutes, with locals pleading with paramedics to ensure the man was transported to a hospital in the hope he could be saved.
Dying: The realisation that the man was still alive initially had little impact other than to convince the burial team to take the critically ill man off
their stretcher and dump him back on the street
Reluctant: An ambulance arrived within 10 minutes, but locals had to plead with paramedics through the vehicle's window to ensure the man
was finally transported to a hospital
At last: Ambulance workers eventually put the critically ill man on a stretcher and took him to hospital
Hope: The reason it was difficult to get the dying man the medical care he so desperately needed is due to a chronic shortage of hospital beds
for Ebola victims in the virus-ravaged Liberian capital Monrovia
The sick man's current state of health is not known, but Dr Besser said he appeared so ill that it seems unlikely he would have been able to cling on to life for much longer than a few more hours.
He said the reason it had proven so difficult to get him the medical care he so desperately needed is due to a chronic shortage of hospital beds for Ebola victims in virus-ravaged Monrovia.
On the other hand, there is still plenty of space at Liberia's cemeteries and crematoriums, which is why the burial team were more than happy to pick up what they thought was the man's corpse within a hour of him being reported dead.
The news comes as an American woman was confined to her Dallas apartment under armed guard after a man infected with Ebola stayed at her home.
Louise Troh said Thursday that she is tired of being locked up and wants federal health authorities to decontaminate her home, adding that she never imagined this could happen to her so far from disease-ravaged West Africa.
Authorities say the circle of people in the U.S. possibly exposed to Ebola widened after the man - who arrived from Liberia last month - was discharged from hospital without being tested for the virus.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
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