WORCESTER, Mass. — The Massachusetts doctor who beat Ebola plans to return to Liberia, where he contracted the deadly virus, in order to help overworked colleagues in the missionary hospital where he has worked for years.
Dr. Rick Sacra, 52, of Holden, said Monday he won't be working directly with Ebola patients but might be asked to help from time to time, since doctors say he's now immune. He departs Thursday.
"The medical staff is a little bit reduced. They've been working very hard and frankly they need a little bit of a breather," he said at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he is an assistant professor. "I just feel the need to return to hopefully give them a break so they don't burn out."
But Sacra said he has no interest in testing his immunity and promised to follow all the necessary Ebola safety protocols.
He expects to be mostly treating patients with malaria and chronic health issues like high blood pressure and diabetes at ELWA, a hospital in the Liberian capital of Monrovia that is run by Serving In Mission, a North Carolina-based Christian organization.
"I guess I'm less nervous about this trip because the thing that I was afraid of having last time, I've had it, and, thank God, I'm through it," Sacra said.
Sacra contracted Ebola in August while caring for pregnant women not suspected to have Ebola, including delivering babies and performing several cesarean sections. He was treated and released from an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital in September.
Sacra said he's nearly at full strength now, after some "bumps in the road" to recovery that included treatment for vision problems, physical therapy and an upper respiratory tract infection that briefly sent him back to the hospital in October.
