Doctor Dies Working to Save Others
July 31, 2014
The Arcturus Project today (warning: language):
Think you’re having a bad day? Trust me, you’re not. Try donning your armor and charging against ebola.
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Doctor Sheik Umar Khan led Sierra Leone’s ebola response. He died at the front. Battling this evil. He was 39 years old.
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Some people are larger than life. Not everybody gets that call. That chance to battle on behalf of all humanity by doing the very simplest of noble deeds. We all wonder how we’d act if we got that call.
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Say a prayer for Doctor Sheik Umar Khan. And let him inspire something good in your life today.
Amen. May Dr. Khan’s example remind us all that we are called to love, to give of ourselves for the good of others.
Khan, a Sierra Leonean virologist credited with treating more than 100 Ebola victims, has been transferred to a treatment ward run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, according to the statement released late on Tuesday by the president’s office.
Health Minister Miatta Kargbo called Khan a national hero and said she would “do anything and everything in my power to ensure he survives”.
Khan told Reuters in late June that he was worried about contracting Ebola. “I am afraid for my life, I must say, because I cherish my life,” he said in an interview, showing no signs of ill health at the time.
“Health workers are prone to the disease because we are the first port of call for somebody who is sickened by disease. Even with the full protective clothing you put on, you are at risk.”
More than 1,000 cases and 660 deaths in West Africa have been reported to date, according to the World Health Organization. The outbreak has affected Sierra Leone, Liberia and New Guinea. Sierra Leone is the epicenter of the epidemic with 454 cases recorded thus far, according to Doctors Without Borders.
Khan was one of more than 200 staff members in Sierra Leone working to combat the epidemic.
Profile and pictures at the BBC.
Dr Khan studied at Sierra Leone University’s College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences.
He graduated with a Bachelors in Medicine and a Bachelors in Surgery in 2001, and began working as a tropical medicine and infectious disease physician.
Shortly after university, he began working for the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, where he served until 2005.
He was then promoted to lead the Lassa fever programme in Kenema.
God rest him and comfort his family, and send more help to Sierra Leone.
Enjoyment and Contemplation 