We held an appreciation program with breakfast for all the ELWA Hospital staff after our morning chapel gathering, to recognize those who had served so courageously during the worst of the Ebola crisis.
Along with Dr. (Jerry) Brown, our medical director, I was asked to say a few words.
As I spoke, thanking our nurses, midwives, aides and cleaners for coming to work during the toughest times in August, September and October, my mind went back to a meeting with health care planners from an international nongovernmental organization.
They wanted to know: “What allowed ELWA to remain open when other hospitals closed?”
The health system collapse was one of the greatest unanticipated consequences of the Ebola epidemic.
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The second answer has to do with little Noah.
When you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, you can accomplish so much more than any one of you could accomplish on your own.
That synergy, the teamwork that results in the ability to give a couple back their baby, who surely would have died otherwise, makes the work so satisfying.
This, too, can motivate people to come to work, when they know they are a critical piece of the puzzle that saves lives.
