Ebola Survivor Returning to Liberia to Serve Patients
Ebola survivor and medical missionary Dr. Rick Sacra will return to Liberia next week to serve patients at ELWA Hospital in the capitol of Monrovia.
Sacra, 52, a family physician from Holden, Massachusetts, contracted Ebola while serving last year in Liberia with SIM, an international Christian mission organization.
He successfully completed treatment for the virus in September at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Sacra, a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Family Practice Residency program, served as the Acting Medical Director at ELWA Hospital from 2008-2010 and has also served as the Liberia Director for SIM.
He returned in August 2014 to help SIM Liberia as the Ebola outbreak spread. As other healthcare facilities in the West African nation have shut down during the Ebola crisis, the hospital has become a model for medical treatment, developing screening processes and offering critical care services.
Sacra plans to treat general patients at the hospital for the next month. He will not work at the Ebola treatment units on the ELWA campus but will see patients with malaria, chronic health problems, and provide maternity and pediatric care.
