US Ebola Patient Thomas Duncan’s Last Words Were To See His Estranged Son

A pastor revealed the final words of Thomas Duncan, who was diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. in September and died Wednesday at a hospital in Dallas, during a memorial service for the Liberian national. When a nurse asked Duncan what he wanted, he responded that he wanted to see his estranged son, the pastor told CNN.

“He was proud of his son,” George Mason, senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, said during a prayer service for Duncan Wednesday evening. “[The nurse] asked him then where his son was. [Duncan] said he was in college ‘where he should be,’ and he was proud of his son.”

Duncan’s 19-year-old son, Kasiah Eric Duncan, is a student at San Angel State University, Texas, according to Mail Online. Kasiah Duncan came to the U.S. with his mother, Louise Troh, when he was 3 years old and had not seen his father since. Thomas Duncan had recently come to America to marry Troh, who remains in quarantine with her 13-year-old son and two nephews. Kasiah Duncan and his mother watched the prayer service via a live stream, Mail Online reported.

The hospital where Thomas Duncan was treated, Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, has come under fire for its handling of his case. Hospital personnel initially turned Duncan away when he first sought treatment in September, even after Duncan told the nurse he had just come from Liberia, where the Ebola outbreak is in full swing. Across West Africa, over 8,000 people have become infected with Ebola. Of those, 3,857 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

Duncan was not admitted to the hospital for treatment until several days later when he returned after his symptoms worsened. He was sick in the hospital for six days before he was given an experimental drug for Ebola, a delay that many have criticized as having led to Duncan’s death.