--- title: Ebola Survivor Dr. Kent Brantly Gives Speech at Indiana University description: Dr. Kent Brantly delivered a commencement speech at Indiana University. canonical: https://time.com/3853126/ebola-kent-brantly-indiana/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-10T15:13:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:07:56.183Z article:section: Health og:title: Watch an Ebola Survivor's Powerful Speech to Med School Grads og:description: Dr. Kent Brantly delivered a commencement speech at Indiana University og:url: https://time.com/3853126/ebola-kent-brantly-indiana/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb527ae6f3b1eefd/6987ef1bcd1bbafd0b6f95df/kent-brantly.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3892 og:image:height: 2189 og:image:alt: Dr. Kent Brantly, an Ebola survivor, speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, 2015 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch an Ebola Survivor's Powerful Speech to Med School Grads twitter:description: Dr. Kent Brantly delivered a commencement speech at Indiana University twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb527ae6f3b1eefd/6987ef1bcd1bbafd0b6f95df/kent-brantly.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch an Ebola Survivor's Powerful Speech to Med School Grads > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=bfbc6848-1dc8-417b-93a5-af1e72155caa&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Ebola Fighters in West Africa - TIME's Person of the Year 2014 [Watch (HLS stream): Ebola Fighters in West Africa - TIME's Person of the Year 2014](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/laroqNbt.m3u8) (10:47)  _Published 2014-12-10. Hundreds of doctors, nurses and health workers work every day to treat and contain the outbreak in the hot zone_  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi May 10, 2015 3:13 PM UTC Dr. Kent Brantly Speaks at Alma Mater Commencement  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi May 10, 2015 3:13 PM UTC Dr. Kent Brantly, one of the Americans who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Liberia, [told](http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/05/09/ebola-doctor-kent-brantly-iu-med-grads-stay-help/27057889/) graduates of the Indiana University School of Medicine on Saturday that failure isn’t the focus of being a physician. Brantly, among the “Ebola Fighters” honored as [TIME’s Person of the Year](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-ebola-fighters-choice/), recalled his experience treating—and losing—patients as a missionary doctor in Liberia, the Indianapolis _Star_ reports. After he contracted Ebola last summer, he was transferred to the U.S. for care and later declared virus-free. “Losing so many patients certainly was difficult, but it didn’t make me feel like a failure as a physician,” the Indianapolis native said at the commencement ceremony, “because I had learned that there was so much more to being a physician than curing illness. That’s not the most important thing we do. The most important thing we do is enter into the suffering of others.” “We were able to hold the hands of people as they died, to offer dignity in the face of humiliating circumstances,” Brantly said. “You are going to share in the most intimate parts of your patients’ lives. You will share in their moments of tragedy. But you will also share in their moments of greatest joy. You will make a difference in people’s lives, and you will make a difference in the world.” Brantly, a graduate of the same medical school, also proudly shared the news that the World Health Organization, earlier in the day, had [declared](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2015/liberia-ends-ebola/en/) an end to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. \[[Indianapolis _Star_](http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/05/09/ebola-doctor-kent-brantly-iu-med-grads-stay-help/27057889/)\] ### Photographing TIME's Person of the Year in Africa, Europe and the U.S.  Foday Galla, 37, Ambulance Supervisor, photographed at home wearing a PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) suit, in Signboard community, in Monrovia, Liberia. Nov. 26, 2014 Jackie Nickerson for TIME  Salome Karwah, 26, a nurse currently working at Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres’ Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia, Liberia. Nov. 26, 2014 Jackie Nickerson for TIME  Dr. Bruce Ribner, Medical director of Emory University Hospital's Serious Communicable Disease Unit in Atlanta where he treated U.S. Ebola patients. Nov. 20th 2014. Bryan Schutmaat for TIME  Nurse Kaci Hickox photographed outside her relatives home Freeport Maine. Nov. 16, 2014\. Hickox was quarantined in New Jersey after treating Ebola victims in Sierra Leone. Bryan Schutmaat for TIME  A Nurse and Hygienist trainee dressed in PPE at the Liberian Ministry of Health’s Ebola Treatment Unit at the former Ministry of Defense compound, in Monrovia, Liberia. Nov. 27, 2014 Jackie Nickerson for TIME  Professor Thomas W. Geisbert at his Lab at the the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Dec. 2, 2014\. Geisbert is a virologist who conducted the first Trials of the Drug TKM-EBOLA. Bryan Schutmaat for TIME  Foday Galla, 37, Ambulance Supervisor, photographed in Signboard community, in Monrovia, Liberia. Nov. 26, 2014 Jackie Nickerson for TIME  Amber Vinson and Nina Pham, nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. They contracted Ebola while treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan. Dec. 5, 2014 Bryan Schutmaat for TIME  Dr. Jerry Brown, 46, Medical Director of ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. Nov. 27, 2014 Jackie Nickerson for TIME  Dr. Pardis Sabeti photographed in her lab at the Broad Institute in Cambridge. Nov. 26, 2014\. Dr. Sabeti sequenced the Ebola Genome from this outbreak. Bryan Schutmaat for TIME  Prof. Peter Piot photographed in a lab at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Nov. 12, 2014\. He discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. Bryan Schutmaat for TIME ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:21] I have spent five weeks in Liberia over the past three [00:24] months [ NOISE ] reporting on an outbreak of Ebola [00:26] that, in the words of one Liberian doctor I met, [00:31] threatened to erase his country from the map of Africa. [00:34] Guys, look out. Ebola is a devastating disease [ NOISE ] [00:38] and the reporting was both heart wrenching and [00:40] horrifying. Have you touched him? Don't touch him. But [00:44] for every time I wrote about rising death tolls, I met [00:47] extraordinary men and women who risked everything [00:51] from disease to distrust and even death, to stop Ebola [00:55] from taking more lives. Ebola is very scary. You have to [01:00] have courage. [ MUSIC ] One [01:04] of the heights of Ebola. There was nowhere for anyone [01:06] to go. There's dead bodies on the ground. [ MUSIC ] [01:08] These are their stories. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [01:12] [ NOISE ] Being [01:25] a doctor in Liberia is just sacrificial from beginning to [01:28] end. You're not making anything. It's almost like a [01:31] volunteer job. That's not [ UNKNOWN ]. [01:36] [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] My first experience as an Ebola [01:39] patient the lab technician walked in with a [01:43] spacesuit and I mean, he was taking every [01:47] precaution not to touch and not to get infected himself. [01:50] I could see the fear in his eyes. Eyes. [ MUSIC ] When [01:54] the test results came back that evening and I was told [01:57] that I was Ebola positive, something strange [02:01] happened. I relaxed, okay, because [02:05] I was happy it was not malaria. [ MUSIC ] Luckily [02:10] we got. A place at Elwa Treatment [02:15] Center, where they found a spot. Sadly, somebody [02:19] had just passed and I was going to take their spot. [02:26] Interestingly, they put me into a room where I had the [02:30] guy who we assume I got the infection from. Lying [02:34] right, right next to me. [ MUSIC ] [02:38] At one time I was hiccupping with every breath, so [02:43] they thought I, I, I wasn't gonna make it. And they [02:47] were even discussing whether I would be cremated or [02:51] buried. [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] [02:56] I'm thankful to just be alive, because with such a close [03:00] call, I consider myself like somebody who has come [03:03] back from the dead. [ APPLAUSE ] [03:10] [ NOISE [ [03:17] My name is Katie Meyler and I'm the founder of More [03:20] Than Me. [ MUSIC ] [03:31] I wasn't really afraid for our girls or for More Than Me [03:35] because it was in Lofa County, it was far away. And [03:37] who is Esther? Where's Esther? [ MUSIC ] Eventually, [03:41] it hit JFK Hospital, which is one of the main hospitals [03:44] here in the capital, and that's when people started to [03:47] get afraid. Everyone's thinking, if this thing gets to West [03:50] Point, the country's in trouble, because it's the most [03:52] densely populated area in West Africa. [ MUSIC ] [03:58] So [04:02] we got this ambulance specifically for West Point. And [04:05] we pull up to Redemption Hospital and there pulling [04:08] dead bodies out of Redemption. Doesn't seem like [04:11] people are moving fast enough and like everyone has [04:12] accepted. It feels like their families have accepted their [04:12] death. [ MUSIC ] In this crazy [04:25] scene of death and dying and dead bodies, and [04:28] screaming and crying and mourning. Is this cute little [04:31] three to four year old girl with her pink party dress on [04:33] just sitting on the steps of this ambulance with no [04:35] symptoms of Ebola. Do you wanna doll baby? Yeah, I'll [04:36] bring you one. My name Katie. Nice to meet you. I love [04:36] you. Her [04:46] mom died and now the girl had nowhere to go. [04:47] [ MUSIC ] Guideon. Yeah? Please, please keep her safe [04:48] away from harm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I [ CROSSTALK ]. [04:53] This was going on all over the place. I mean, I started [04:55] to see it more and more. And she was the first child I [04:59] got close to. And I was like, she cannot stay at [05:01] Redemption Hospital cuz if this girl, she might have [05:04] Ebola, she might not. If she doesn't have it, she's [05:06] definitely gonna get it and most likely she'll die [05:08] because there's no help here are Redemption. [05:12] [ NOISE ] So that's what this house became. It was [05:14] called Housing Observation and Pediatric Evaluation for [05:17] 21 days. Laugh. [ LAUGH ] Laugh [ LAUGH ] Laugh. [05:18] [ LAUGH ] Laugh. [ LAUGH ] Laugh. [ LAUGH ] So that [05:23] was the first child. And one of the nurses brought her [05:25] here. [ FOREIGN ] But only for like extreme [05:28] emergencies, where like kids literally would be [05:30] homeless. Laugh. [ LAUGH ] My [05:38] name is Foday Galla. I happen to be the supervisor of [05:41] the district number 13 ambulances. [ MUSIC ] [05:45] And I believe it was my calling so once I'm called to do [05:48] this, I always love to help people. [ MUSIC ] You have to [05:51] have passion. You have to have feelings. You have [05:55] to have care. [ MUSIC ] I actually got [05:59] sick trying to help a family of eight. [ MUSIC ] That I [06:02] really tried to help, but seven of them had to lose their [06:06] life to the Ebola virus. [ NOISE ] [ UNKNOWN ] The [06:07] worst part was that people that I [06:11] moved in with in the ETU, they died. They [06:16] died right before my eyes. [ NOISE ] So I feel good [06:19] picking up people and driving them to the centers and [06:21] seeing them coming out. So this is why, this is the [06:24] reason why. Why I really love to help to take people to [06:27] the center, have them treated, and have them come [06:29] home to their families. [ MUSIC ] Hello. What [06:47] I went through in life, some of those things have had [06:50] impact on. Dr. Brown. My desire to help, to relieve [06:54] people out of their suffering. There is a family of nine, [06:54] nine. I think there were about 14 that got infected. And [06:55] out of the 14, we have. Nine survivors. There [07:10] are a lot of things I've really learned from this [07:13] outbreak. One of which is being able to look around [07:15] yourself and see what you can use that's available. [07:19] To find [07:24] a remedy to the situation. Than just sitting and waiting [07:27] for a remedy from outside. What's in your [07:32] power, how you can make use of [07:51] what's available. [ MUSIC ] My name's Ella [07:53] Watson- Stryker. I'm working with MSF as a health [07:55] promoter, that means that my job is primarily focused [07:59] on making sure that people have the information they [08:01] need about Ebola. When you have countries [08:05] where there is no functioning disease surveillance [08:08] system, it means that a virus can circulate for months [08:10] in a rural area without anyone noticing. Wasn't until a [08:16] doctor was infected and died that someone started to [08:20] say, wait a minute, this is not normal, we need to [08:22] investigate. [ MUSIC ] This [08:27] is something that we allow to happen. It will continue [08:31] in this way until better systems are put in place. And if [08:35] anything comes out of this outbreak, I hope, it's that [08:38] we learn how to be better at looking for, at [08:42] health status in rural and urban communities, both. In [08:46] areas where people don't have good access to [08:49] healthcare. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] When. [ MUSIC ] We [08:49] started having survivors here at the unit. Then people [08:49] started coming to the E. T. U. in large numbers. What [08:49] is your [09:07] total number of releases? I know [09:13] you [09:18] are in one [09:22] of those units that have released more people. Total [09:23] number of releases. I know we have more than [09:25] [ MUSIC ] I'm doing [09:32] it because if I wasn't here on the ground, doing my [09:34] job, I would be in the US reading newspapers and [09:37] saying someone needs to be doing something. I [09:42] thought my whole life I had nothing. And here are [09:45] people who don't have drinking water or a hospital in [09:48] their villages. And I wanted to help, you know? And [09:51] regardless of your religion, I think that like, I know for [09:54] sure like even if I died during Ebola, at least I lived for [09:59] something I believed in. Can you smile? [ LAUGH ] [10:02] Somebody has to. To do the job. I'm looking at it like [10:06] we're fighting a war. And we all have to play our part, [10:10] and I just feel that it's a duty, that I have to go [10:16] back. [10:20] Okay, until we can get rid of it entirely. [ MUSIC ] [10:24] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. [10:33] [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. 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