The Lassa Ward
One Man's Fight Against One of the World's Deadliest Diseases
St. Martin's Press · Print & ebook · July 20, 2010
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.
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- A medical memoir where urgent care meets questions of fear, conflict, and human decency.
- Themes
- Epidemic medicine, Human rights and decency, Medical decision-making under pressure
- Pacing
- Fast
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
Scribbling the CatAlexandra Fuller53% match
Fevers, Feuds, and DiamondsPaul Farmer64% matchShares Contagious Diseases
HIV ExceptionalismAdia Benton62% match
Sizwe's TestJonny Steinberg61% match
A Surgeon in the VillageTony Bartelme59% matchShares Lives in Medicine
No Place Left to Bury the DeadNicole Itano59% match
For younger readers: Secret of the Yellow Death, Mountains Beyond Mountains (adapted for Young People), New York Times Deadly Invaders
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
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.
Continue reading
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.
Care Under Pressure
A medical memoir where urgent care meets questions of fear, conflict, and human decency.
Come here for
- The strain of caring for patients with meager supplies
- A firsthand account of Lassa fever’s human stakes
Expect
- A young medical student confronting fear and life-and-death decisions
- Disease and conflict alongside a struggle for human rights
Where it sits
| Lives in Medicine | 90% |
|---|---|
| Infectious Diseases | 70% |
| Contagious Diseases | 48% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Lives in Medicine
- Contagious Diseases
- Heart Disease
- Authors
- Dr. Ross Donaldson
- Publisher
- St. Martin's Press
- Published
- July 20, 2010
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Epidemic medicine · Human rights and decency · Medical decision-making under pressure
- Reading lane
- Lives in Medicine