By Chelsea Rice

Boston.com Staff | 01.12.15 | 7:24 PM

Its been almost five months since Dr. Richard Sacra was released from Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after a 20-day battle with the deadly Ebola virus. But hes ready to get back to work. Sacra contracted Ebola in Liberia at the end of August after working in a hospital clinic for medical missionaries under SIM. On Thursday, Jan. 15, Sacra will return again to Liberia.

This time though, it will be different.

When Sacra decided to return to Liberia in August (he had lived and worked there off and on for 15 years previously), he was answering the call of a struggling hospital clinic in crisis. Dr. Kent Brantly had fallen ill after contracting the deadly virus, and nurse Nancy Writebol was being evacuated the day Sacra landed in Monrovia, the district at the center of the outbreak where their ELWA Hospital was located. The hospital was closed because of the lack of doctors, so Sacra was flying to Liberia to fill the vacuum needed to keep the hospital open.

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It was a crisis momentthe hospital was closed and we were trying to get it reopened, Sacra said in an interview at UMass Medical School on Monday in Worcester. Now its more like there are already people running with the ball, and Im just hopping in to try to give it all a little push.

Its a little less stressful this time, to say the least. Sacra is there to lend a hand and help relieve some of SIMs overburdened staff who have been working around the clock to address all of the patient needs. You see, this isnt even an Ebola clinic. This is your typical hospital. But because of Ebola and a fractured health care system, people havent been able to receive care for other illnesses and issues such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Sick children and pregnant women havent been able to see a doctor in months because of the daunting and overwhelming Ebola crisis.

Sacra said hes hoping to do some work with the medical school there as well. Unfortunately, many of the faculty in the area medical school have left the country or lost their lives treating Ebola patients. While the threat of contracting Ebola itself presented a stressful element to Sacras first trip in August, this time Sacra is preparing himself for the absences--the faces he wont see, the colleagues who have lost their lives battling for the lives of their patients, and their own.

I know its going to be difficult seeing friends who have lost loved ones, said Sacra. But I need to give them support for what theyve been through. For instance, theres a doctor who passed away in October, and Im going to see his wifethats going to be heavy.

See the original post here:

Dr. Rick Sacra Returning to Liberia to Help Rebuild