The Lassa Ward: One Man's Fight Against One of the World's Deadliest Diseases - Paperback

by Ross Donaldson (Author)

Ross Donaldson was an idealistic young medical student who gave up his comfortable life in the States to venture into Sierra Leone, a country ravaged by fighting and plagued by conflict streaming across the border from neighboring Liberia. In a hospital ward with meager supplies, Ross is in a race against time to find a way to care for patients afflicted with Lassa fever, a deadly and highly contagious hemorrhagic illness similar to Ebola. Forced to confront his own fears, he stands alone to make life-and-death decisions in the face of a never-ending onslaught of the sick. Ultimately, he finds himself not only fighting for the lives of others but also for his own. The Lassa Ward is the memoir of a young man studying to be a physician, while making his way through a land where a battle against one of the world's deadliest diseases matches a struggle for human rights and decency.

Author Biography

DR. ROSS I. DONALDSON is a UCLA medical professor who works in one of Los Angeles's main trauma centers, specializing in emergency medicine and global health. He is author of several medical texts and has been a humanitarian in some of the world's most dangerous places. When in the States, he resides in Venice Beach, California.