Ten years after becoming the first Ebola patient to be treated at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Dr. Richard Sacra returned to Omaha Thursday to reunite with the team who made his recovery possible.
Sacra spoke at an event commemorating the anniversary of his release from UNMC's Nebraska Biocontainment Unit as one of the first patients with Ebola to be treated in the United States.
Sacra, who lives in Massachusetts, last visited Omaha in March of 2015 to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of the biocontainment unit.
Sacra, a longtime medical missionary, was working in Liberia during the Ebola crisis a decade ago. During that outbreak, there were nearly 30,000 cases of the virus in West Africa and more than 11,000 people died with the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While working to provide care to patients when thousands were infected and hospitals and clinics were closing, Sacra noticed he had a fever.
After waiting the required 72 hours to be tested for Ebola, Sacra tested positive on Sept. 1, 2014. Four days later, Sacra arrived in Omaha and was admitted to the biocontainment unit, where he spent nearly three weeks.
On Sept. 25, 2014, Sacra was released and got to meet the medical team who cared for him without all of the personal protective equipment between them.
"That was a real wonderful blessing of a day," he said. "I consider these people, even though I don't see them all the time, I consider them lifelong friends. They did an amazing job, and they gave me my life back."
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In a video message shared during the event, University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold remembered the moment when Sacra was released. At the time, Gold was the chancellor at UNMC.
"No one will ever forget the moment we knew that he made it," he said. "His radiant smile spoke to all of us about this success."
Shelly Schwedhelm, who now works at UNMC's Global Center for Health Security, reflected on her and other members of the biocontainment unit's decision to accept Ebola patients as she spoke at Thursday's event. While the unit was established in 2005, Sacra was its first patient.
"These are our fellow Americans, and we've trained for nine years to do this mission," she said she remembered thinking at the time.
Tim Uyeki, chief medical officer of the CDC's influenza division, said the work done at UNMC to treat Sacra and the two other Ebola patients who were brought there was essential to understanding how to treat the virus.
"This really contributed to optimizing supportive care of patients with Ebola viruses everywhere," he said.
Uyeki said the CDC continues to see UNMC as a leader in handling highly contagious infectious diseases through its continued development in the last decade, including work to treat COVID-19 patients.
"It's really good to know that UNMC, Nebraska Med, has this capability and training and will always be a resource for the U.S.," he said.
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