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American doctor and Ebola survivor back "home" in Liberia, fights stigma
Ebola survivor, Dr. Rick Sacra, is back in Liberia continuing his medical practice at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia. Sacra arrived in Liberia on 18 January 2015 after being infected with the Ebola Virus Disease last August. He was flown to the U.S. for treatment after spending three days in the ELWA Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) in August 2014.
As the third American Ebola patient, Sacra was released from the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on 26 September after receiving an experimental drug, TKM-Ebola, supportive care and blood serum from Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly. According to doctors, it is not clear which treatment saved his life.
Sacra, a family physician and missionary, looking back at his experience working at the ELWA Hospital, believes he contracted the disease while delivering babies and performing C-sections during the height of the Ebola crisis. He said that during the first week of August, there were 15 pregnant women who came in. Thirteen babies had died in utero by the time they reached the hospital. One woman had been in labor for 10 days.
“We were trying to save their lives. One of these women did have Ebola. We didn’t know.”
At that time, he said, blood samples were sent to Liberia’s National Lab located near Roberts International Airport and it was sometimes three to four days before getting the results back from the lab.
“The woman I’m thinking of, she was confused, the one who had HIV. We had to hold her and restrain her to get her IV started and to get the catheter in the bladder.
“And she was doing a lot of moving... So it was either during that process of getting her ready for surgery or after the surgery [that I contracted Ebola]. [But] I’m just thankful that nobody else got sick,” he recalled.
Soon after, he began feeling unwell and remained at home.
“I took a temperature. I had 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not high but high enough to let me know I had a fever. From that moment, I isolated myself and I didn’t leave the apartment where I was staying.
He said at that point, he did not have a lot of pain. He described the feeling as a bad stomach bug that kept going and going.
Sacra later tested positive for Ebola, was moved to the ELWA ETU for three days and then evacuated by the U.S. State Department to a level four unit in Omaha, Nebraska. This unit is equipped to handle patients with viruses like Ebola. After he recovered, he went back to work in Mid-November in Massachusetts, supervising residents and meeting patients.
About returning to Liberia, he said there was no hesitation. He considers the country his adoptive and second home. Sacra first came to Liberia as a medical student for 10 months in 1987. From 1995 to 2010, he and his wife Debbie came to Liberia with the organization “Serving In Mission (SIM)” - Sacra as a family physician and his wife as a teacher. Their two children attended high school and college in Liberia.
“I don’t think that was a question for me. This is my second home. Obviously the needs are incredible. The doctors told me that I would be immune to Ebola. So that is kind of a relief [and] not to have that hanging over my head. Even when I left Nebraska they asked me if I would go back. I said, ‘Yes, I would go back.’ I didn’t think I thought about not going back,” he added.
Sacra has returned with a renewed vigor to fight the disease at the time 13 of Liberia’s 15 counties have had no new cases for more than 70 days.
His concern now is treating patients at ELWA, and the well-being of Ebola survivors, while also fighting stigma
“It’s really important that people realize that that person [who has survived Ebola] is not able to spread Ebola as far as routine contact, sitting together at the office, going to school together, eating together in a cook shop or whatever. They’ve recovered.”
ELWA Hospital has now put in effect additional preventive measures to protect its medical staff. Sprayers with chlorine solution are now required to work in ELWA hospital in addition to the ELWA ETU to ensure the protection of doctors and nurses after working with patients.
