On the recordDecember 4, 2014
the holiday rush is underway and millions of Americans are decorating, shopping, and preparing to spend Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa with their loved ones. I want to draw attention to one woman from Illinois who is doing something very different. Janet Teasley is a registered nurse in Chicago. She has volunteered to spend her holiday season in Liberia treating patients with the potentially deadly Ebola virus. When Janet Teasley first told her family and coworkers of her plan, she says she encountered some resistance. One doctor with whom she works was only half kidding when he said he thought she was crazy. But once he realized she was serious, the doctor told Teasley he admired her. I share that admiration. The U.S. Agency for International Development estimates that nearly 16,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus. Nearly 6,000 have died. Today, it is estimated that 7,000 people in Liberia, where Janet Teasley is volunteering, have Ebola. She is helping some of the neediest patients in that country that has been the hardest hit by this disease. Although Ebola has been contained so far here in the United States, the outbreak is still raging in parts of West Africa. Teasley is part of a wave of U.S. health care workers being recruited to help stop the spread of the disease in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and now Mali.…
