Kwan Kew Lai

Harvard Book Store welcomes infectious disease specialist KWAN KEW LAI for a discussion of her new book, Lest We Forget: A Doctor’s Experience with Life and Death During the Ebola Outbreak. She will be joined in conversation by NAHID BHADELIA, an infectious disease physician and Boston University professor.

About Lest We Forget

In 2014 after fighting through yards of bureaucratic red tape, leaving her family, and putting her own health at risk in order to help suffering strangers, Kwan Kew Lai finally arrived in Africa to volunteer as an infectious disease specialist in the heart of the largest Ebola outbreak in history. What she found was not only blistering heat, inhospitable working conditions, and deadly, unrelenting illness, but hope, resilience, and incredible courage.

Lest We Forget chronicles the harrowing and inspiring time spent serving on the front lines of the ongoing Ebola outbreak—the complicated Personal Protective Equipment, the chlorine-scented air, the tropical heat, and the heartbreaking difficulties of treating patients she could not touch. Dr. Lai interweaves original diary entries to create a gripping narrative about life, death, and human relationships that will leave no reader unmoved.

Lest We Forget exposes the raw brutality of Ebola, as well as the chaotic nature of the undersupplied and understaffed health infrastructure in the developing world. At once a memoir of triumphs and failures and a memorial, this book will ensure that the victims of Ebola and the fighters who sought to heal them will not be forgotten.

Praise

“Picking up this book, I was quite unprepared for the gripping, page-turning quality, the deep personal insights, the lyricism, and the candid, heartfelt explorations of fear, courage, love and loss. This is an unforgettable book. A reminder of what contagion is like at its deadliest, and what medicine can be like at its very best." —Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting For Stone

"A firsthand, eye-opening account of the devastating impact of an infectious disease outbreak, which has the potential to spread worldwide. If you are looking to be inspired by one person’s compassion and desire to help those inflicted with a deadly illness, this is a must-read. This is a personal, heartfelt narrative of what it means to be a good global citizen by unselfishly serving those suffering from healthcare disparity and lack of education and proper training while understanding and respecting local culture. Thank you, Dr. Kwan Kew Lai, for being a voice for those who have suffered." —Moeen Saleem, MD. Advocate Medical Group, Board of Directors, MedGlobal