Kelly Sites is a nurse from Michigan who has a "go" bag packed and her passport ready at all times. She works with Samaritan's Purse, and at any time she could get the call to fly somewhere in the world to help with a sudden outbreak, like the recent Ebola pandemic. We spoke with Kelly about her experience serving in these difficult circumstances.
1. How did you get into this line of medical service work?
After the Haiti earthquake in 2010, I was devastated. I thought, I have to help, I have to help. I signed up to go on a trip with Samaritan’s Purse and I went. That started this whole crazy life that I never could have imagined.
I went to Haiti as a medical volunteer. Shortly after that, the Cholera outbreak happened in Haiti. I was crushed and felt like I had to go back and help. These were one-to-two weeklong trips. After Haiti, I went to the Philippines for a month.
I have a bag packed at all times. My passport is always ready. We talk about that as the family. When God calls you, God calls you. We’re all in. My family counts the cost. Everyone does. God calls us to do unsafe stuff. Hard stuff. These are people who really need help. Somebody has to go. If I have a skill that can help, I can’t pretend it’s just not happening. Many said I was stupid and crazy to go back to Liberia. But, people were dying. If I can go, I have to go. No doubt about it.
2. Do you recall when you first heard about the Ebola outbreak? What compelled you to respond?
I saw it on the news in February of 2014. In April, I received a call from Samaritan’s Purse and they asked, “Can you go?” I thought, oh my word. Ebola.
But, I was ready to go. While I was waiting for my visa to come back, some of the initial Ebola patients in Liberia died. And it died down for a little. By the time I got my visa back, there were no more new cases. They told me they’d keep me on-call.
Suddenly more cases started popping up everywhere. In God’s timing, I already had a visa. I was able to leave the very next day. I was one of two nurses on this trip. We were going to partner with existing medical efforts at the Samaritan’s Purse site, including Dr. Brantly. We were sent to supplement them. This was before the crisis was out of control. On this first trip, I was there for three weeks. I went back again in November for four weeks.
3. What was it like to serve Ebola victims in Liberia?
I remember putting on the protective suit and going into the Ebola unit the very first time. It was less than 24 hours from when I left my home in Michigan. I remember thinking, how did I get here? I walked across the threshold of the Ebola line. Once you cross that line, you can’t return unless you decontaminate. Once I walked from the safe side to see my first patient, I had a lot of peace. I felt God was with me. Only a Christian can understand that. I wasn’t scared. I had a healthy fear of the disease, but I could do my job and not panic.
You could feel and see the utter fear throughout the country. I was there before the epidemic got crazy. It’s different now. People knew something bad was happening, but they didn’t know exactly what this Ebola issue was all about.
Many of our patients had seen a family member die of Ebola. They were isolated. They were afraid. And because the nurses and doctors were covered head to toe in protective suits, all they could see was our eyes.
We would look at them in the eyes and hold their hands and stroke their heads. These were human beings. We would pray with them and sing hymns to them. It wasn’t a patient with Ebola, it was a person with a name who was so vulnerable and so scared. I felt privileged to work and take care of them. To bring them some level of dignity.
4. It must have been wrenching to see so many of your patients die. How did you hold onto hope?
One of our patients was an 11-year old boy. From the time he arrived at the unit, he had a really flat affect. He was very withdrawn and very sick.
I have a teenage son. I knew I needed to simply treat him like a mother would treat a son. All of us at the unit would do this, not just me, I would hold his hand and cradle him. I would rub his hair. I would read to him. He particularly liked me to read the Jesus Storybook Bible. I would read him story after story, he always asked for more stories.
But, we had only two patients who survived in all of June and July. Everyone else died. All of our patients. On my first trip, education hadn’t happened. That first time, everyone died. The second time I went, I had a different job. I wasn’t working in the Ebola units. I was there to set up a new unit in Southern Liberia. Samaritan’s Purse was setting up the unit. I oversaw that and trained 26 Liberian staff to take over the unit and serve the patients.
Once I walked from the safe side to see my first patient, I had a lot of peace. I felt God was with me. Only a Christian can understand that. I wasn’t scared. I had a healthy fear of the disease, but I could do my job and not panic.
5. Were there any patients that had a particular impact on you?
One of my patients was a mom in her late twenties. She had two kids who she was scared to leave. Her sister died from Ebola. Her own mom was in the bed across from her and she was petrified. I was trying to connect with her and took care of her for over a week.
I took her medicine and did her care. For most of the time, she wouldn’t look at me. But at the end of the first week, she was rapidly going downhill. I would lift her head and give her a drink of water. One day she had an extreme amount of pain—so much pain—and I asked her to look into my eyes. It was the first time she looked me in the eyes.
I said, "I’m right here. I’m right here. I’m going to pray with you. You’re not going to die alone." She knew she was going to die. I knew she was going to die. At the time, she had blood and vomit and excrement all over her and I asked her if I could give her a bath. She said yes and I did. She deserved to die with dignity. She kept looking deeply into my eyes. After the bath, I told her I had to go because I had been in the protective suit too long. She grabbed my hand and said thank you for being my friend. She said, “I love you.”
Since this interview, Kelly Sites has continued her medical service work with the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Response Team, going to Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific to help after the typhoon struck.
Chris Horst is the author of Mission Drift and Vice President of Development at HOPE International. You can connect with him on Twitter, @chrishorst.
