Tsion Firew had just finished running a first aid training when she glanced down at her phone — and then looked up confused.

The message she saw was about a colleague Firew had worked with a few days earlier in the emergency department at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda. "She's very young, full of energy, one of the smartest nurses I've ever worked with," recalls Firew, who is chair of emergency medicine at Africa Health Sciences University in Rwanda.

The message simply said: "Pray for her."

Firew rejiggered her schedule and made a trip to the intensive care unit. As Firew peeked around the screen that divided the patients, she saw the young energetic nurse and was taken aback. The woman was almost "lifeless." Eyes barely open. Not recognizing familiar faces.

"It was quite scary

See Full Page