The family
of New York Ebola victim Dr Craig Spencer came to his defense on Friday
after he was criticized for failing to quarantine himself on his return
from West Africa.
'As
far as I'm concerned he did nothing wrong,' his uncle, Arnie Spencer
told MailOnline. 'I'm angry that he is getting trashed.'
Dr
Spencer, 33, has been slammed for going bowling in Brooklyn, taking
subways and a taxi, walking on Manhattan's High Line and going to
restaurants even though he was feeling sluggish -
around a week after
arriving back in the U.S. from Guinea where he treated Ebola patients.
Arnie Spencer said that his nephew's detractors are being unfair.
'I don't like what's being said at all,' he said at his home in Royal Oak, Michigan.
Trio: Craig Spencer, pictured center,
and his brother Christopher, left, who are only a few years apart, grew
up in the middle-class Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe
Dr
Spencer was working with the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres
in West Africa, a region which is Ground Zero for Ebola cases.
'He's
a hero to me,' said his uncle. 'He's a fantastic humanitarian and that
is how people should think of him. He wanted to be a doctor without
borders from when he was a kid. It's all he wanted to do.
'He didn't just want to be a doctor, he wanted to be a doctor without borders.'
Dr Craig Spencer's live-in fiancée Morgan Dixon, 30, is one of three people now in quarantine because of contact with him.
His
Uncle Arnie said that if he had had his way his nephew would have never
traveled to West Africa to treat patients of the dreaded disease.
Tight-knit clan: Ebola-stricken doctor
Craig Spencer (far right) pictured here with his family, (L to R): mom
Pat, dad Jim and sister Andrea
He said: 'I don't know about other members of the family, but I was against him going. But I'm still very proud of him.'
And he has no fears that Craig won't recover.
'He's
getting the best care possible in New York. It's not like he is still
in Africa. 'I have no doubt he will pull through,' he added.
Arnie
Spencer said that he hasn't spoken to his nephew recently because of
his travels but is looking forward to next fall when Craig and Morgan
plan to tie the knot.
Other
family members of Dr Spencer are struggling to come to terms with the
devastating diagnosis, which has arrived on the heels of another
heartbreaking family health crisis.
Dr
Spencer, 33, tested positive for Ebola on Thursday after returning from
Guinea, where he had been treating patients suffering from the deadly
virus.
Brothers
and sister: Craig is said to be very close with his two siblings, baby
sister Andrea Spencer, 31 (pictured left) and older brother, Christopher
(right)
Frantic: Andrea Spencer took to
Facebook to express her devastation over her brother's Ebola diagnosis,
which came amid their mother's battle with kidney failure
Worried for his brother: Christopher Spencer, who is married with two children, asked his friends to pray for Craig
Spencer
is currently undergoing treatment at Bellevue Hospital and is said to
be in a fair condition. His fiancee and two friends who had been in
close contact with him have been quarantined as a precaution.
Spencer's
doctors would not go into detail about his condition, but New York City
Mayor Bill di Blasio said on Thursday night that the patient was 'in
good shape.'
On
social media, Dr Spencer's siblings expressed their shock and dismay at
their brother's predicament, made all the worse by the fact their
mother is currently battling end-stage kidney disease.
'Is
this seriously happening right now?! can i please get a reprieve from
this non-stop heartbreak?!' Craig Spencer's sister, Andrea, wrote on her
Facebook page Thursday evening. 'First; my mother's stage 5 renal
failure diagnosis, now my brother?!'
Craig
and Andrea’s mother, Pat Casey-Spencer, 56, was listed as the
administrator of a private Facebook group called 'Praying for a Kidney.'
Andrea
Spencer, 31, a student at Wayne State University, appealed to her
friends asking them to pray for her family at their greatest time of
need.
Another
health crisis: Craig's mother, Pat Casey-Spencer (pictured left with
daughter Andrea and right with husband Jim), reportedly has Stage 5
kidney failure
Inseparable: Ms Spencer, 31, called her humanitarian big brother 'her hero, best friend and her other half'
'STOP STOP STOP STOP, please world i beg, STOP!' Ms Spencer pleaded on her page. 'i NEED my mum and my brother so terribly bad.'
Craig's
older brother, Christopher Spencer, who is married with two children,
also took to Facebook after learning of the diagnosis.
'I
need alot [sic] of prayers tonight for my little brother,' Mr Spencer, a
business owner from Michigan, wrote. 'Hes [sic] the dr. In NYC
diagnosed with ebola.'
Craig
Spencer, the son and Jim and Pat Casey-Spencer, grew up in a
middle-class suburb of Detroit called Grosse Pointe, where he attended
Grosse Pointe North High School.
In 2008, Spencer graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine, followed by a residency at New York Hospital Queens.
At risk: Spencer (pictured in
protective gear) contracted Ebola while working as part of a Doctors
Without Borders team in Guinea, West Africa
In love: Dr Spencer is set to marry his fiancee, Morgan Dixon (left), 30, next September in Detroit
To
add to his many professional accolades, Spencer earned a Master of
Public Health degree at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public
Health, and only recently completed a fellowship in international
emergency medicine. He is board-certified in emergency medicine.
'The
physician is a dedicated humanitarian on the staff of New
York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center who went to an area
of medical crisis to help a desperately underserved population,' the
hospital said in a statement to CNN.
The
33-year-old doctor has made a number of trips to Africa in recent
years, beginning in Rwanda where he helped create a teaching curriculum
for emergency care workers.
Happy
couple: Dr Spencer and Miss Dixon met in China while attending Henan
University in 2007. The wife-to-be is currently in quarantine as a
precaution
Top-level care: The doctor and his
fiancee are being cared for by specially-trained teams in quarantine at
Bellevue Hospital in midtown Manhattan
He
later journeyed to Burundi, where he worked on an infant mortality
survey, followed by a trip the Democratic Republic of the Congo during
an outbreak of neurocysticercosis – an infection caused by parasites,
which leads to seizures and epilepsy.
Spencer
attended Henan University in China for a year between 2006 and 2007 to
study Chinese language and literature, according to his LinkedIn
profile. He is also said to be fluent in French, Spanish and Greek.
The
young doctor has been described by his neighbors on West 147th Street
in Harlem as incredible friendly and hard-working, and someone who is
always willing to land a hand.
According to their online wedding announcement, the couple are due to get married next year.
'Craig's
friends say he's a goofball, incredible, gifted in both art, music and
science, and a go-getter,' the announcement says.
Route: Dr Craig Spencer rode the
subway along with visiting a Brooklyn bowling alley, The Gutter, and the
High Line park. It was revealed Friday that he had also eaten at The
Meatball Shop in Greenwich Village and stopped at Blue Bottle Coffee on
the High Line
TIMELINE: THE RUN-UP TO DR SPENCER'S EBOLA DIAGNOSIS
September 16:
Dr Craig Spencer flew to Guinea to treat Ebola patients as a member of
the French organization Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans
Frontiers)
October 14: Dr Spencer departed Guinea on a flight to Brussels. He reported no symptoms.
October 17: He boarded a flight to the U.S. on Brussels Airlines Flight SN0501. Reported no symptoms.
Arrived at JFK and was screened with no symptoms upon arrival.
October 21: At 7 AM, he reported fatigue and exhaustion. No fever, vomiting, diarrhea.
At around 3:00 PM, Dr Spencer visited The Meatball Shop for 40 minutes. The Meatball Shop is located at 64 Greenwich Avenue.
Around 4:30 PM, he visited the High Line. Walked on High Line and stopped at the Blue Bottle Coffee stand (10th Ave & W 16th St)
At around 5:30 PM, he got off the High Line at 34th Street and took the 1 train to the 145th Street station.
October 22: At around 1:00 PM, Dr Spencer went running along Riverside Drive and Westside Highway.
Around 2:00 PM,
he went to pick up Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share at
143rd St and Amsterdam Avenue (Corbin Hill Farm) and picked up a box
which he took to his apartment.
At around 5:30 PM,
Dr Spencer left for The Gutter bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
with two friends. For his arrival at Gutter, he took the A train at
145th Street and transferred at 14th Street and took the L train to
Bedford Avenue.
Around 8:30 PM, Dr Spencer left The Gutter. For his return trip, he used Uber as his means of transportation.
October 23:
Around 10:15AM, he first reported a fever. At this point, he called
Medecins Sans Frontieres and the New York City Health Department. He was
immediately taken to Bellevue by FDNY EMS.
Spencer was quarantined at Bellevue Hospital on Thursday, six days after returning from Ebola-stricken Guinea.
After
taking his own temperature twice a day since his return, Spencer
reported running a fever and experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms for
the first time early on Thursday.
He was then taken from his Manhattan apartment to Bellevue by a special team wearing protective gear, city officials said.
During
a late-night press conference Thursday, New york Governor Andrew Cuomo
said Spencer checked into the hospital when he realized he had a
temperature of 100.3F fever, suggesting he may have caught the onset of
symptoms early.
Spencer
was not feeling ill and would not have been contagious before Thursday
morning, city Health Commissioner Mary Travis Bassett said.
Owners of the bowling alley he visited on Thursday said that they had voluntarily closed it for the day as a precaution.
The
driver of the Uber taxi Spencer took was not considered to be at risk,
and officials insisted the three subway lines - A, 1 and L- he rode
before falling ill remained safe.
Spencer's
case brings to nine the total number of people treated for Ebola in
U.S. hospitals since August, but just two, Duncan's nurses, contracted
the virus in the United States.
The
New York case surfaced days after dozens of people who were exposed to
America's 'Patient Zero' Thomas Eric Duncan emerged from a 21-day
incubation period with clean bills of health, easing a national sense of
crisis that took hold when nurses Pham and Vinson became infected.
As
New Yorkers headed to work on Friday, some were unfazed by the news,
while others said it added to their anxieties about the perils of living
in a crowded city.
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