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About Dr. Martin M. Salia:

Dr. Martin Salia is the only US resident and Health Care Worker from the Republic of Sierra Leone who died in the United States from the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). In November 2014, he was diagnosed with the Ebola Virus Disease in Freetown, Republic of Sierra Leone. He was strong enough to walk onto the State Department Medevac plane at the Freetown International Airport Lungi, Republic of Sierra Leone, for the long flight to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha. When he arrived in Omaha, he was gravely ill with respiratory and renal failure. He succumbed to death shortly thereafter on November 17, 2014, at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

He was just 44 years old and he left behind a wife and two sons.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be rosy, but why did I decide to choose this job?
I firmly believe God wanted me to do it!
I took this job not because I wanted it but because I firmly believe it was a calling and that God wanted me to. That’s why I strongly believe that the God that has brought me here will fix whatever comes to my doorway!” Dr. Martin Salia.

His Story:

Dr. Salia left behind a strong legacy in his homeland, the Republic of Sierra Leone as a Physician, Medical School Lecturer, Mentor, and Good Samaritan. Until his death, he was a Surgeon Specialist at the Connaught Hospital, a Chief Medical Officer, and the only Surgeon at the Kissy Methodist Hospital in Freetown, Republic of Sierra Leone. Dr. Martin Salia was indeed a great man, with a very big heart. His passion to save lives is what lost him on his own. He thrived well beyond the hospital.  Within the hospital, Dr. Salia was proactive.

Dr. Martin Salia was ever so fast as possible; if you saw Dr. Salia on one side by the time you knew it, he was at the other side. He reached out to the underprivileged, especially women and children. He performed free surgeries and also provided medication to patients that could not afford to pay.  He was known to have treated orphans and widows for free. His residence was an extension of the hospital. Always, a lot of patients come to seek free treatment or bring their prescriptions in search of free medication.

As a result of his selfless service towards medicine, he had planned that in January 2015 we were to start a family-run mobile clinic serving from village to village to perform free treatments to those that did not have the opportunity to get to the hospital and those who could not afford to pay for basic medical care.  He was passionate about his profession. He was so emotional that he’d cry when he lost a patient. He was friendly not only to his medical colleagues but down to his junior staff, including janitors and even the hospital security. Outside the hospital, he cared for widows and paid tuition for orphans and school dropouts that he convinced to reenroll in school.

To his family, he was a great husband and dad. He loved God and mankind. He was a friend to everyone irrespective of creed, tribe, religion, gender, or race, and he visualized the Republic of Sierra Leone and the world as a society, where everybody should be treated with dignity and equality. He dedicated his humbled life to serving others.  Dr. Martin Salia fought so hard to promote a better healthcare system in Sierra Leone, which he wasn’t able to accomplish. His numerous contributions are readily accessible in the many articles published about him in the national media and the internet. Many, many tears were shed and mourning at the announcement of his death at the hospitals where he practiced medicine and the country as a whole. Dr. Martin Salia was considered a hero, and he was widely loved. President Obama’s ‘Ebola Czar”, Mr. Ron Klain who spoke at Dr. Salia’s funeral and read a personal message from President Obama: “The greatest heroes are people who choose to face danger, who voluntarily put themselves at risk to help others. Martin Salia was such a man.”

His Legacy:

Besides the tremendous legacy of Dr. Martin Salia, he left behind a wife and two sons (college-age and high school age). These surviving family members have pledged that with any support, they would want to carry on the dreams and aspirations left behind to support the marginalized, deprived, and vulnerable children and their families in the Republic of Sierra Leone. They started with surviving victims of the Ebola epidemic; however, even before the insurgent of the Ebola Virus Disease, Sierra Leone was among the world’s poorest countries. Now with the outbreak, the socio-economic consequences for the country became appalling.

Though the Ebola Virus Disease was combatted successfully, the disease found the country’s allied health care system and infrastructure in poor shape that needs revamping and rebuilding; therefore, the primary goal of the Foundation is to build a hospital and to help the underprivileged and the needy in Sierra Leone irrespective of creed, tribe, religion, gender, and race. This had always been the vision and ambition of Dr. Martin Salia to improve the health care system by building a hospital.

The vision of the Foundation can be divided into two tiers:

• Empower disadvantaged widows and orphans socially and economically which is the immediate outcome.
  “When widows are denied the right to access, own, control, or inherit property and the land they live on, it is a violation of their rights. When these women and their children are evicted from their homes because their husbands have died, it is a violation of their rights. When a lack of savings means a lack of health care for themselves and education for their children and grandchildren, it is a violation of their rights. Widow’s rights are women’s rights are human rights. Ignoring the needs and concerns of widows around the world is ignoring a violation of the basic human rights of the most neglected of women. And enduring traditional practices directed at widows, which are inhumane and degrading, is a serious violation of their human rights” (UNFPA, 2011).
• To improve the health care system by building a clinic/hospital which is the long-term goal.

Dr. Martin Salia’s vision is what the family is trying to build.