"God moves people": How did the first American infected survive Ebola?

October 07, 2014

Writer

Glenn interviewed Franklin Graham, President of Samaritan’s Purse, and Dr Lance Plyler on radio today. Both men were directly involved in helping Dr. Kent Brantly survive after he came down with Ebola while working for Samaritan’s Purse in Africa. How it all went down left everyone giving God the credit.

Glenn: Okay, so when the doctor found out he had Ebola, were you there?

Dr. Plyler: I informed him.

Glenn: What was that like?

Dr. Plyler: It was really one of the most sobering experiences of my life, if not the most. It was horrible.

Glenn: Are you friends with him?

Dr. Plyler: I am, yes.

Glenn: And as we said, pretty much a death sentence. How long…14 days to live? How long do you usually live?

Dr. Plyler: It depends, Glenn, but some people can pass in as quickly as four or five days. Some people will, you know, live after ten days.

Glenn: How much of the time from being diagnosed to death is agony?

Dr. Plyler: Well, a lot of it is, but the last several days are terrible.

Glenn: Can you describe a little bit?

Dr. Plyler: Sure. Ebola really, they’re fluid producers, so it initially starts off a lot like as we’ve described other endemic diseases or even flu, but you quickly develop very high fevers, headache, terrible muscle aches, joint aches, but then they begin to have…really it’s like a gastrointestinal disease. They begin to vomit profusely, uncontrolled diarrhea, and then in advanced stages, as you’ve read, they can have bleeding, significant bleeding.

Glenn: Do organs melt? That’s what I’ve always heard, that your organs melt. Is that true?

Dr. Plyler: I’m not sure I would say that they truly melt, but it truly infects multiple organs. It’s overwhelming sepsis of the body.

Glenn: Okay, so you find out. You get called, and you find out. Was it you that found the serum? Or how did you stumble across the serum?

Franklin: No, I was in Alaska when they called me, Glenn. We thought he might be infected, and it wasn’t until two days later that we got the test back that he was infected. And I called his wife right after Kent had called her to tell her that he was infected. I called her within a couple of minutes, just had prayer with her and to try to comfort her a little bit. And I told her, I said, “Amber, we’re going to try to do everything that we possibly can.” And Glenn, when I hung up the phone, I just thought to myself I have no idea what to do. He’s in Africa. How am I going to get him out of there? I need to get him back for treatment. How in the world are we going to do this?

And Glenn, as a Christian, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you say I believe that Jesus took my sins to the cross, that he died for my sins, that he was buried for my sins, that God raised him to life, and when I was 22, I gave him my life to take me, to spin me, to use my life however he wanted to use it. And all of my life I’ve just put my faith and trust in him for the day-to-day even, just Lord, get me through today. And when I hung up that phone, I just felt like I didn’t know what to do, and I was at a loss.

Ken Isaacs runs our programs, and I talked to Kenny. I said, “Ken, what are we going to do?” He said, “Franklin, I don’t know.” Well, we had a policy that if you get sick anywhere in the world, a plane will come get you, a policy, you know, insurance. We pay for that.

Glenn: This is a big difference.

Franklin: Well, when they found out that we needed to go to Liberia, they said well what’s this for? Well, we have a doctor who’s sick. Well, what has he got? He has Ebola. We don’t do that. And so the insurance company just right then denied it, and we thought that we had it worked out. We even told Kent that, you know, hey, listen, we think…we’ve got an insurance policy. We’re going to get you home, get you back someplace that can help you.

And I think it was that Tuesday or that Monday or Tuesday we realized that that plane wasn’t going to work out. And I tell you, God moves people, and he moves individuals. There were people in the State Department at levels, and I’m not talking about the leadership, but people that are in the State Department, career diplomats, workers who knew where the levers were and made decisions to help Dr. Brantly, and they just did this on their own. They controlled airplanes.

Glenn: There’s only one airplane that can do this, right?

Franklin: They now have two, just one at the time, and that plane…and here’s another thing, when that plane took off, it had a pressurization problem and had to come back and land. And it was, I think, about 12 or maybe it was 19 hours delayed getting the pressurization problem worked out. If Dr. Brantley had gotten on that plane early, he would have died because he would not have had ZMapp. I think God stopped the airplane and delayed it until the ZMapp, we were able to get…his team could put one dose of ZMapp in it.

Glenn: How much time do I have here? Okay, let me take a break, and then I want you to tell the ZMapp story because this is the serum never, ever been tried on anyone before, brand new, in San Diego, comes from San Diego, right?

Franklin: That’s where the home office is located.

Glenn: Right, and it’s like cultured on a tobacco leaf with a mouse blood or something. I mean, it’s crazy, and you get it, but I want you to take me through how you get it and what happens when we come back.

(Second Segment)

Glenn: I think we actually probably like Congress a little less than we like Ebola. All right, so you’re there, the plane is coming. You had to land the plane. He’s sick. If he would’ve gotten on the plane, he would have died in the air. But in the meantime something else happens.

Dr. Plyler: Yeah, Glenn, it was really, it was very miraculous. And let me just make too a preface comment before I go into the ZMapp. We had a phenomenal medical team from both Samaritan’s Purse and SIM that provide around-the-clock care for Kent and Nancy, and they’re the unsung heroes. They should be applauded. And number two, this is an anecdotal experience. Certainly there needs to be further studies, but I can say in my 25 years of practicing medicine, it was the most powerful anecdotal experience I’ve ever had.

Glenn: The experience of what this drug did?

Dr. Plyler: Of what this drug did. And the amazing thing is really what I think the way God brought so many powerful people together to help me make an informed decision and us make an informed decision. And I’ve received permission from them, but it started…it actually started with the CDC. Dr. De Cock introduced me to Lisa Hensley from the NIH. She was there serving at the reference laboratory to confirm patients with Ebola, and he said why don’t you tell Dr. Plyler about some experimental drug opportunities? And she did just that.

We made contact, and she quickly made contact with many of her friends from the scientific community, Doctor Gary Kobinger, the chief of the Special Pathogens Lab of the Public Health Agency of Canada who had been involved with ZMapp production for over ten years, Larry of Zeitlin of Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, who make ZMapp, and other of their colleagues, and they gave me a crash course, if you will, about ZMapp. They told me all the experiments they had done, that the macaques had done exceedingly well with this drug.

I also was informed about a few other experimental medications, but after prayer and much contemplation, I had a real peace about ZMapp. And so on Wednesday, we were going to give…we had one course, and we had two patients, and so we had to make a decision. On Wednesday we decided, Kent and I decided that we would give the drug to Nancy because at this point he was clinically stable. This was on the 30th of July. The next day I peered in the window, and to my dismay to say the least, Kent had the look of a few hours left to live literally, and it was then I immediately changed my mind.

And I was informed, they said whatever you do, don’t split the dose, the course of therapy, because they were concerned. This is very, very limited medication, and they were concerned that they wouldn’t get another course, and you needed the full course. But at that moment, I just had this peace, split it, and so I looked in the window, I said, “Kent, I’m going to give you the antibodies.” And at that point they were still frozen.

Glenn: Okay, so now let’s make sure, like attorneys and everybody else said don’t do this, right? Because this has never been tried on humans before. Quite honestly, I don’t understand that whole thing. I mean, if I’ve got cancer, and I’m dying or I have Ebola, and I’m dying, load me up with shoe polish if you think it’ll work. You know what I mean? What have I got to lose? And this is frozen. It has to be kept what, a couple hundred degrees below zero, right?

Dr. Plyler: Minus 20.

Glenn: Minus 20, and explain how it comes in.

Dr. Plyler: So the story…I wish I had time. The amazing part is it came in from Sierra Leone. They did not elect to give it to the physician up there, Dr. Khan, and so we requested it, and it flew to us and made its way. It came through Sierra Leone to the Guinea border. We brought it across on a canoe over a river. We entered it into Liberia. We flew it from Liberia to Monrovia, the capital, and it arrived to us in a Styrofoam package about this big.

And Glenn, honestly, I was scared to death when I got it because now I had to do something with it. But as I said, when I looked in that window, and I saw Kent’s condition, as you said, I had no other choice. We had no other choice.

Glenn: So how did you thaw it?

Dr. Plyler: Glenn, honestly, I was putting it under my leg. I was doing everything I could, but the amazing thing is God gets the credit. Several hours earlier we had put one of the doses under Nancy Writebol’s arm, you know, to defrost it. And I suddenly remembered, and I ran…I was at Kent’s house, got in my truck. I went across as quickly as I could to Nancy’s, and another doctor, Dr. Eisenhut, she went in and got it because I wasn’t in PPE. I didn’t have anything but on gloves, and she put it in three bags, sprayed it with chlorine. We put it in a bucket. I threw it in the back of my truck. I rushed over back to Kent’s house.

Glenn: Suited back up?

Dr. Plyler: I never was suited. I only had gloves. I didn’t have any time. And I handed it to a Dr. Mobula [ph.], and she hung the antibodies.

Glenn: He’s hours within death.

Dr. Plyler: I think so, absolutely.

Glenn: How long before he started to turn, and what was that like?

Dr. Plyler: It was the best thing. It was one of the best thing that’s ever happened to me because I was so sure. I said, “God, you cannot let him die.” And within an hour, Glenn, his vital signs…he had 104.7 temperature. It came down. His respirations came down. He hadn’t walked in a day and a half. He walked to the bathroom.

Glenn: Within an hour?

Dr. Plyler: Within two hours, and in fact, I’ll never forget, I texted Lisa Hensley of the NIH, and I said, “Lisa, Kent is dramatically better. Is that possible from the antibodies?” And she said absolutely. Gary, referring to Gary Kobinger, said that the macaques would get better within hours. In my 25 years of medicine, it was the most dramatic anecdotal experience I’ve ever experienced.

Glenn: Not a public company, so you can’t invest in this, because I’m looking up stock. This is a really good investment. How much do they have of this?

Dr. Plyler: Very, very little.

Glenn: With the world’s resources, if we got serious, could we make this in abundance?

Dr. Plyler: They’re working diligently now. They’re reaching out to other companies that have capacity to, because it’s complicated, Glenn, how they make this.

Glenn: Is it really like tobacco leaves and mouse blood?

Dr. Plyler: That’s a simplification, but that’s correct.

Glenn: I mean, honestly, somebody was like I don’t know, let’s try some mouse blood and tobacco leaves. I mean, that sounds like something a drunk man would come up with. Okay, let me just go through a couple of things, and I think the audience wants to ask some questions. What should we be doing that we’re not doing? Does it make sense to close the airspace and say look, if you’re there, you’re there; if you’re not, you’re not coming in here or at least literally quarantine people for at least 21 days if you’re in that area?

Franklin: Glenn, I think those are decisions that somebody needs to make. One of the things that we need right now, and in Liberia the logistics is under the UN for helicopters and getting to rural areas, and it takes weeks to schedule a helicopter through them. Once they schedule it, they can cancel it like they did on us today for just no reason. They decided we’re not going to fly today.

The United States military needs to come in and take care of the logistics for organizations like us that are there working to help us save the lives of people. If we don’t save the lives of the people in Liberia, this thing is going to get worse. We’ve got to find a way to treat people and get them healthy and get them better.

Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

Get your tickets NOW at www.MegynKelly.com before they’re gone!

What our response to Israel reveals about us

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

I have been honored to receive the Defender of Israel Award from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post recently named me one of the strongest Christian voices in support of Israel.

And yet, my support is not blind loyalty. It’s not a rubber stamp for any government or policy. I support Israel because I believe it is my duty — first as a Christian, but even if I weren’t a believer, I would still support her as a man of reason, morality, and common sense.

Because faith isn’t required to understand this: Israel’s existence is not just about one nation’s survival — it is about the survival of Western civilization itself.

It is a lone beacon of shared values in the Middle East. It is a bulwark standing against radical Islam — the same evil that seeks to dismantle our own nation from within.

And my support is not rooted in politics. It is rooted in something simpler and older than politics: a people’s moral and historical right to their homeland, and their right to live in peace.

Israel has that right — and the right to defend herself against those who openly, repeatedly vow her destruction.

Let’s make it personal: if someone told me again and again that they wanted to kill me and my entire family — and then acted on that threat — would I not defend myself? Wouldn’t you? If Hamas were Canada, and we were Israel, and they did to us what Hamas has done to them, there wouldn’t be a single building left standing north of our border. That’s not a question of morality.

That’s just the truth. All people — every people — have a God-given right to protect themselves. And Israel is doing exactly that.

My support for Israel’s right to finish the fight against Hamas comes after eighty years of rejected peace offers and failed two-state solutions. Hamas has never hidden its mission — the eradication of Israel. That’s not a political disagreement.

That’s not a land dispute. That is an annihilationist ideology. And while I do not believe this is America’s war to fight, I do believe — with every fiber of my being — that it is Israel’s right, and moral duty, to defend her people.

Criticism of military tactics is fair. That’s not antisemitism. But denying Israel’s right to exist, or excusing — even celebrating — the barbarity of Hamas? That’s something far darker.

We saw it on October 7th — the face of evil itself. Women and children slaughtered. Babies burned alive. Innocent people raped and dragged through the streets. And now, to see our own fellow citizens march in defense of that evil… that is nothing short of a moral collapse.

If the chants in our streets were, “Hamas, return the hostages — Israel, stop the bombing,” we could have a conversation.

But that’s not what we hear.

What we hear is open sympathy for genocidal hatred. And that is a chasm — not just from decency, but from humanity itself. And here lies the danger: that same hatred is taking root here — in Dearborn, in London, in Paris — not as horror, but as heroism. If we are not vigilant, the enemy Israel faces today will be the enemy the free world faces tomorrow.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. It’s about the courage to call evil by its name and to say “Never again” — and mean it.

And you don’t have to open a Bible to understand this. But if you do — if you are a believer — then this issue cuts even deeper. Because the question becomes: what did God promise, and does He keep His word?

He told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” He promised to make Abraham the father of many nations and to give him “the whole land of Canaan.” And though Abraham had other sons, God reaffirmed that promise through Isaac. And then again through Isaac’s son, Jacob — Israel — saying: “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you.”

That’s an everlasting promise.

And from those descendants came a child — born in Bethlehem — who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus never rejected His title as “son of David,” the great King of Israel.

He said plainly that He came “for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And when He returns, Scripture says He will return as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And where do you think He will go? Back to His homeland — Israel.

Tamir Kalifa / Stringer | Getty Images

And what will He find when He gets there? His brothers — or his brothers’ enemies? Will the roads where He once walked be preserved? Or will they lie in rubble, as Gaza does today? If what He finds looks like the aftermath of October 7th, then tell me — what will be my defense as a Christian?

Some Christians argue that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred exclusively to the Church. I don’t believe that. But even if you do, then ask yourself this: if we’ve inherited the promises, do we not also inherit the land? Can we claim the birthright and then, like Esau, treat it as worthless when the world tries to steal it?

So, when terrorists come to slaughter Israelis simply for living in the land promised to Abraham, will we stand by? Or will we step forward — into the line of fire — and say,

“Take me instead”?

Because this is not just about Israel’s right to exist.

It’s about whether we still know the difference between good and evil.

It’s about whether we still have the courage to stand where God stands.

And if we cannot — if we will not — then maybe the question isn’t whether Israel will survive. Maybe the question is whether we will.

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