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In an exclusive segment on the "Today" show this morning, six American survivors of Ebola met each other for the first time.
Dr. Kent Brantly, Dr. Rick Sacra, nurses Amber Vinson and Nina Pham, aid worker Nancy Writebol and journalist Ashoka Mukpo joined Matt Lauer to share their experiences and the lessons they learned from surviving the deadly virus.
"You're members of a club that you didn't want to join," Lauer said, about having them all in one room.
"I don't think we can compare war stories," said Dr. Brantly, a missionary doctor who was brought to the U.S. for treatment from Liberia on Aug. 2 and released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Aug. 21. "This is a horrible experience for anybody who goes through it."
Many of the survivors sitting around Brantly had him to thank for their recovery, as they had been treated with his plasma. "He's our angel and gave us a second chance at life," said Pham, a nurse who contracted the virus after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian immigrant and the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., who died from the virus on Oct. 8 in Dallas.
"It's important to recognize that we got the kind of treatment we got," said Mukpo, who was working for NBC News as a freelance journalist in Liberia when he contracted the virus.
All of the survivors told Lauer they would still help Ebola patients if they could do it all over again. "Nursing is a calling and such a rewarding career," said Pham. "It's in our personality and in our nature."
The only American Ebola survivor not present for the interview was Craig Spencer, a New York City doctor who tested positive for the virus last month after returning home from treating patients in Guinea. He has since fully recovered.
For more from the survivors, watch the full "Today" show clip above.
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