A Massachusetts physician who contracted the Ebola virus in 2014 while working in a hospital in Liberia and survived is scheduled to receive the third annual L'Chaim Prize Jan. 31, Mass Live reports.
Richard Sacra, MD, a family medicine physician affiliated with the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, managed operations for the Eternal Love Winning Africa Hospital in Monrovia, Libera in 2014 during the height of the Ebola epidemic. Dr. Sacra contracted the disease while delivering a baby to a mother with a high fever.
Dr. Sacra was transported to a hospital in Nebraska and eventually survived the disease, which the CDC estimates killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa throughout the epidemic, according to the report.
After surviving the virus, Dr. Sacra made the controversial decision to return to Liberia and help the country rebuild. In a 2014 op-ed for Time, he wrote that it was his relationship with God and Liberia that led him to return to the country.
"I count it a great privilege to work alongside both expatriate and Liberian doctors and nurses who have been risking their lives every day for the last six months to make a difference in Liberia. These are the true heroes," he wrote.
The $500,000 L'Chaim Prize is one of the largest annual awards dedicated to patient care. It is funded by philanthropists Mark and Erica Gerson of New York City. The funds will reportedly be used to train medical residents, install solar power capacity throughout the Liberia, and help establish more intensive care units with trained hospital staff, the report states.
To access the full report, click here.