A Doctor’s Ebola Story

ANALYZE THE TEXT

Page 494
1. Compare: Review paragraphs 2 and 5, which provide details
about George’s photo and caption in the Times. How is George’s
portrayal in the Times similar to Hatch’s portrayal of him in the
memoir? How do the two portrayals differ?

The Times photo and caption present George

looking joyous, and they describe his jubilation at
surviving the virus. However, as we learn from
Hatch’s account, George has also just received very
worrisome news about his family possibly being
infected and will soon face suffering and grief again.
2. Draw Conclusions: Why did the medical staff at the ETU take
particular interest in the case of Williams Bayan?
What does their interest reveal about them?

The staff attached emotional importance to Williams’s survival in part

because they had sent his father, George, back into the confirmed
ward after his own recovery to look after the young boy.

Williams’s case was also special in that it did not follow the
same course as usual, and therefore became a “canvas”
onto which staff members projected their own tendencies
toward optimism and pessimism. This shows the staff to be
sensitive to patients’ and their families' emotional needs.
3. Analyze: In paragraphs 13 and 14, how does your
understanding of the author’s perspective provide
insight into his reaction to the course of Williams’s
illness?

As a doctor, Hatch knows he should avoid letting

his emotions interfere with his judgment.

This perspective helps us understand how emotionally

involved he became with Williams and George because
he came to believe Williams would recover.
4. Interpret: In paragraph 20, how does the author
use details to convey the emotional effect of
Williams’s death on the staff?

Hatch conveys the emotional impact of Williams’s

death mainly through the unusual silence of the staff
that morning, as compared to the usual “raucous
banter.”
He describes the morning meeting as “quiet,” and says
the staff “silently” went about their tasks. He also says
one staff member “hardly made eye contact with
anyone” and another staff member’s eyes were
bloodshot.
5. What Contrasts and Contradictions did you notice
about George in the excerpt? Did your thoughts
about a contrast or contradiction change by the end
of the story? Explain why or why not.

George’s wish not to go back into the ward to nurse

his son is contradicted by the grief he felt for Williams
at the end.
Students are likely to have felt greater sympathy and
understanding for George as they read about his deep
grief.
6. In paragraph 19, the author says that what made
Williams’s death harder to deal with was that they had
asked George to go back into the confirmed ward to care
for him. What is your opinion of his decision to urge
George to go back into the ward?

I think it was the right thing to do because Williams

needed someone to take care of him and, even
though he died, at least he spent his final days with
his father.