Ebola work on Op SIRONA described as a career highlight

The Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa devastated that region through 2014 and 2015, with more than 11,000 dead, putting the rest of the world on alert and spurring many nations to lend support to the fight against the hemorrhagic fever.

As part of the Canadian government’s contribution against the epidemic, a total of 79 CAF health care and support staff deployed to Sierra Leone in three different rotations from December 2014 to May 2015. The mission, dubbed Operation SIRONA, sent personnel to the UK’s Kerrytown Treatment Unit. The facility wasn’t tasked with caring just for local patients, but rather with caring for the local and international health care workers who had been exposed to the Ebola virus.

Two members from CF H Svcs C (A), Lt(N) Carly Mackay, a nursing officer, and MCpl Lisa Ouellette, a medical technician, each deployed to Kerrytown on different rotations, and were each recently awarded for that effort with a new Op SIRONA service medal.

Both said that any fears or hesitations about coming in contact with Ebola were put to rest after an exceptional three-week training period in the UK. They learned the proper use of personal protective equipment, rigorous hand washing and decontamination techniques, as well as receiving lessons on the culture and communities to help lessen any shock upon arrival.

The UK facility in Kerrytown was described as world class, with an uplifting atmosphere that saw care workers and their patients getting to know each other on a first-name basis. Many patients who came in contact with the disease did not contract it, but for those who did, forming those relationships made it all the more rewarding when patients eventually recovered. Many even returned to their health care work after rebounding.

“There was certainly something satisfying about seeing someone get confirmed, get very sick to the point where things look bad, to then walking out that other side and do the survivors’ ebola dance,” Lt(N) MacKay said.

And while personnel took pride in the successes at the facility, there were undoubtedly difficult moments as well. All three rotos experienced caring for patients who did contract Ebola, both domestic and international, and each roto had patients in their care who eventually succumbed to the virus.

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