3-Year-Old Ebola Survivor Who Lost His Mother 'Proposes' to the Nurse Who Cared for Him

Isata Kallon, a nurse in Sierra Leone, didn't think one of her young charges suffering from Ebola with the rest of his family was going to make it. Then when he defied the odds and survived the deadly disease raging through several countries in West Africa, he surprised her again.

Ibrahim, the 3-year-old boy who lost his mother but beat Ebola virus disease with his two older brothers, popped the question, according to NPR.

"He said he wants me to be his wife," Kallon said, laughing, according to the radio outlet. "I accepted!"

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, a health care worker, left, helps a colleague as she prepares his Ebola personal protective equipment before entering the Ebola isolation ward at Kenema Government Hospital, in Kenema, the Eastern Province around 300km, (186 miles), from the capital city of Freetown in Sierra Leone.  (AP/Michael Duff)

Though Ibrahim now visits the nurses station in Kenema Hospital in good humor, blowing kisses into the air at Kallon, she told NPR he wasn't always in such good spirits.

"The chance of survival was very low for him," the nurse said of Ibrahim's early days in treatment when he was vomiting frequently.

According to recent statistics, Sierra Leone has likely had more than 3,400 Ebola cases resulting in 1,200 deaths since the outbreak began earlier this year.

Kallon said Ibrahim formed an attachment to her because she was frequently having to transport him to his own bed after finding him with other patients:

"I [mostly found] him lying on the beds of other patients," she said. She wasn't sure if he was lonely or confused, but she had trouble keeping him in his own bed. "So every time, I had to take him, give him a bath and dress him up and put him back [on his own mattress]," she said.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim's mother's health began to worsen. She began vomiting heavily and had severe diarrhea. Then, roughly seven days after the family had first arrived, she passed away. Ibrahim and his brothers were still alive in their beds, just a few feet away.

Ibrahim and his brothers are now among other patients out of the Ebola ward, free of the disease, but waiting to go home in a different area of the hospital. The boys will be brought home to their father soon, according to NPR.

For Kallon, one of the many health workers in the country, struggling to keep up with the influx of patients, she said she will miss little Ibrahim.

Overall, there have been more than 9,100 Ebola cases in West Africa resulting in more than 4,500 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.