Local Doctors Heart-Broken Over Ebola Spread In Liberia
CHICAGO (CBS) -- This is a difficult time for Chicago doctors who have traveled to Liberia in recent years to work in a hospital there.
Dr. Keegan Checkett, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Chicago, worked at JFK Hospital in Liberia. And most of the people she worked with have died of Ebola.
"Too many to count at this point. Everyone we knew, essentially."
After years of civil war, Liberia was building a health care system - with help from physicians like Dr. Checkett.
"And they started with nurse training and they moved into med students. And just a couple of years ago they finally graduated a medical school class and they were going to have residencies, which is incredibly exciting.
"And then Ebola came along and decimated all of the steps forward that they had made."
Dr. Checkett says this past March, U. of C. decided to pull its team - because of Ebola.