Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: The Lassa Ward

The Lassa ward: one man’s fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases by Ross I. Donaldson 2009

This is a memoir about a young medical student who spent the summer of 2003 in war-torn Sierra Leone in order to learn more about Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever that is similar to Ebola. The young man spent time with an elderly Lassa specialist, Dr. Contech, in the town of Kenema. During that time Dr. Contech left to go to a conference for four days and left Ross in charge of the entire Lassa ward. The trip extended to three weeks and during this time Ross had to make many life and death decisions. Ross had to deal with many crisis situations and many of the patients died regardless of his valiant attempts to cure them. Lassa fever is treatable with medication and the carrier of this disease is infected rats. Unfortunately due to poverty in the region the populace uses rat meat as a source of protein. What I enjoyed about this memoir was the way the author wrote about his coming to terms with providing medical assistance to the poor with the many constraints of civil war, poverty, and a lack of medical supplies.

When Ross returns home to the United States he fall gravely ill and is able to experience how it feels to be a patient. Fortunately he recovers from his illness with a greater understanding of both sides of the health care system.