Heather Bellamy spoke with Dr Kent and Amber Brantly about their time in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak.

Kent: Heather, I will never know for sure how I contracted Ebola. I remain convinced that our protocols, procedures and equipment in the Ebola treatment unit were appropriate and safe. I think that I contracted the disease from a patient's daughter, as I held her hand and tried to counsel her regarding her mother's grave condition. As I tried to gain her confidence and tell her that we were going to do our best for her mother, I held her hand and put my arm on her shoulder. She had been caring for her mother. She had been helping her mother get up and go to the bathroom and clean up her bodily fluids. I think I probably contracted it from my contact with her, but I didn't know at the time that I was putting myself at risk by holding her hands.

Heather: What effect did it have on you?

Kent: I came very close to death. I spent the first 10 days of my illness in my home in Liberia, in isolation. I went through all of the same symptoms that I had seen my patients develop. My eyes became blood shot and I developed a rash on my body. I experienced vomiting blood, having blood in my stool and raging fevers that were uncontrollable. I had massive diarrhoea and dehydration. I required multiple blood transfusions and on the worst day of my illness I really thought I was going to die of respiratory failure. I had fluid on my lungs and a high fever and I was working very hard to breathe and I thought that I was going to die.

Heather: And Amber, while all this was going on, what was happening with you and your children? How were you handling all of this?

Amber: I was visiting family at home in Texas at the time he started getting sick. The hardest thing for me, was being so far away and not having anything to do that could be helpful to him. Even though it was the safest place for me, I still just wanted to be with him, to comfort him and be there for him. I couldn't have done anything to alleviate his suffering, but I just wanted to be with him. I am thankful that so many friends and our family came together though and we went through it together, as we waited for messages from Kent, or from his doctors. It was awful, but in a different way to how Kent was suffering. I'm not eager to have to do that again.

Heather: And Kent, you said that thousands of people have died from Ebola, so how do you think you managed to survive?

Kent: Ebola is not a uniformly fatal disease. It does have a very high death rate. There have been over 11,000 people who have died from this outbreak, but at the same time there have been almost 15,000 survivors. I am not unique in surviving, but I contribute my survival to many different factors. One factor was my underlying health status before getting sick. I was a pretty healthy individual and my immune system was able to fight against the virus. I also received incredible care from my colleagues in Liberia and from the team at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, who took care of me after I was evacuated to America. The fact that I was able to be evacuated to a higher level of medical care, is part of what's responsible for my recovery. I was also the focus of prayer from hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people around the world, who were praying for me at the time that I was the sickest. I thank God for saving my life and for bringing all of those pieces together so that I could survive.

Heather: Who was God to you through this experience?

Kent: That's a really hard question to answer. I thank God for saving my life. I learned in the deepest part of my suffering through this illness, some important things about God. I learned that ultimately the most important thing is that nothing can separate me from his love; neither life nor death, nor anything in all creation can separate me from the love of God. But I also see the suffering of the thousands who died and the hundreds of thousands who have been affected by the loss of loved ones. I see the tearing up of their communities and societies and I know that God was present there, but I think we're still waiting to see how he will redeem this huge tragedy on a societal level.

Heather: Has this experience changed you both?

Amber: Absolutely. I kind of picture the timeline of my life and there's this huge gap in it of the year 2014. I'll be forever changed and I'm still figuring out what those changes will be and how I will look at things and interpret events and how I will worship God in the future. It has changed us tremendously.

Kent: On the other hand I think it hasn't really changed us. All of our experiences in life impact who we are and who we are becoming. This is another experience in our life that will shape us moving forward, but we are still the people we were when we moved to Liberia. We felt like God called us to that type of work years and years ago and ultimately we feel like that's still the calling he's given us and is still the type of work we want to return to doing.

Heather: And so what has life been like for you since you recovered? Are you fully well now?

Kent: I am fully well. I am very thankful to have made a full recovery. There are a lot of survivors who deal with what's being called post Ebola syndrome, with a variety of different manifestations. Some people are having eye problems, hearing problems, joint pain and all kinds of difficulties. I'm very thankful to have made a full recovery and be in good health.