The family of New York Ebola victim Dr Craig Spencer are struggling to come to terms with his diagnosis while his mother battles end-stage kidney disease.

Irish American Pat Casey-Spencer is desperately seeking a kidney transplant after beign diagnosed with renal failure.

Her illness and her son's contraction of Ebola have impacted the Michigan Irish American family deeply.

Dr Spencer’s siblings have expressed their shock and grief over the devastating circumstances on social media.

“Is this seriously happening right now?! can i please get a reprieve from this non-stop heartbreak?!” Craig Spencer's sister, Andrea, wrote on her Facebook page Thursday evening.

“First; my mother's stage 5 renal failure diagnosis, now my brother?!”

Andrea Spencer, 31, a student at Wayne State University, asked her friends to pray for her family.

“STOP STOP STOP STOP, please world i beg, STOP!” she posted on her page. “i NEED my mum and my brother so terribly bad.”

Craig's older brother, Christopher Spencer, a business owner from Michigan who is married with two children, also took to Facebook after learning of the diagnosis.

“I need alot [sic] of prayers tonight for my little brother,” he wrote. “Hes [sic] the dr. In NYC diagnosed with ebola.”

Their mother, Pat Casey-Spencer, 56, was listed as the administrator of a private Facebook group called 'Praying for a Kidney.'

The family is also angry that Spencer is being heavily criticized for failing to quarantine himself on his return from West Africa. 

The 33-year-old doctor tested positive for Ebola on Thursday and is currently undergoing treatment at Bellevue Hospital.

He has been slammed in the media for roaming the city despite feeling sluggish around a week after his return to the US from Guinea where he treated Ebola patients. 

Many of Spencer’s family members have come to his defense.

“As far as I'm concerned he did nothing wrong,” Arnie Spencer said of his nephew, who was in West Africa working with French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres. “I’m angry that he is getting trashed.”

“He's a hero to me,” his uncle told the Mail Online, from his home in Royal Oak, Michigan. “He's a fantastic humanitarian and that is how people should think of him. He wanted to be a doctor without borders from when he was a kid. It's all he wanted to do.”

“He didn't just want to be a doctor, he wanted to be a doctor without borders.”

“I don't know about other members of the family, but I was against him going. But I'm still very proud of him.”

“He's getting the best care possible in New York. It's not like he is still in Africa. 

“I have no doubt he will pull through,” he added.

Arnie Spencer said that he hasn't talked with his nephew recently but is looking forward to next year when Craig and his fiancee Morgan Dixon plan to marry.

Dixon, 30, lived with Dr Spencer and is one of three people now in quarantine because of contact with him. Two of Spencer’s friends have also been quarantined as a precaution.

Dr Spencer is the ninth person to be treated for Ebola in U.S. hospitals since August.