From Our Partners
Sunday, June 26, 2022
News on Pathogens and Preparedness
Global Biodefense
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Global Biodefense
No Result
View All Result
Home Defense + Military

Army Guard Doctor Gains New Experiences in Liberia

by Global Biodefense Staff
February 8, 2016
Lt. Col. William LeCates

Lt. Col. William LeCates, a New York Army National Guard doctor, with Capt. Joseph Kowo, deputy commander of the Armed Forces of Liberia Medical Command, during his 2015 deployment to Liberia.

Dr. William LeCates, a kidney specialist and medical director of Bassett Healthcare Center, credits seven years as a New York Army National Guard military doctor as having made him a better overall physician.

The things he’s learned about military leadership and the way the military quickly incorporates medical lessons learned into clinical practice, and the training he’s had in dealing with medical trauma, have all helped make him a better civilian doctor, LeCates explained.

“It is difficult for me to be absent from my civilian work, but I come home again with a better appreciation for own civilian role,” LeCates said.

LeCates, who has worked for Bassett Healthcare Network since 2003, practices internal medicine as well as serving as medical director at the hospital.

Since 2009 he’s also been a member of the New York Army National Guard, putting the knowledge and skills he gained at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore to work for American and allied military personnel.

He always had an interest in serving in the military, LeCates said, but going to medical school, establishing himself in a practice, and having three kids along the way meant putting off that goal.

Finally, with his family settled in Cooperstown, his practice established, and the realization that at age 39 he needed to join the military now or never, he decided to seek a commission in the Army Medical Corps, LeCates said.

“The Guard was a perfect fit for me,” he said. “I knew we could have our home, we could stay in our home, Debbie (his wife) and my kids could be secure and fixed in our schools and the community and I could carry out my military duties.”

As an Army Guard doctor, LeCates serves as a member of the New York Army National Guard’s Medical Command, or MEDCOM. Mostly they conduct medical readiness weekends at Camp Smith Training Site just north of Peekskill in the Hudson Valley, or at Fort Drum in Northern New York, along with treating Soldiers during training periods.

But his service has also meant deploying overseas, and since joining the Army National Guard, LeCates has deployed several times, including two rotations in Afghanistan.

LeCates’ most recent deployment was a six-month non-combat mission to the West African country of Liberia, with a 14-member detachment from the Michigan Army National Guard.

“We lived and traveled with the Liberians. Wherever they traveled, we traveled,” he said. “They were always gracious hosts, but some of the areas were very rural. It was really hands on.”

As a doctor, the deployment offered a remarkable opportunity to see medicine at both the macro and micro level, as the country dealt with the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak that hit the country in 2014, LeCates said.

“The country is small enough, and the cities are close enough, that in a single day I could be in a Liberian clinic looking at young kids that are getting malaria, and in the evening I could be working at the Ministry of Health and helping to understand their Ebola response efforts,” LeCates said.

“In Liberia the medical experience, the diseases and diagnoses I saw, are ones I will never see in the United States,’ he added.

Read more from the New York National Guard. Photo credit: William LeCates

From Our Partners

Related Posts

Poliovirus Detected in London Sewage: Response Measures Emphasize Wastewater Surveillance and Vaccination Gaps
Outbreak News

Poliovirus Detected in London Sewage: Response Measures Emphasize Wastewater Surveillance and Vaccination Gaps

June 22, 2022
Monkeypox Diagnostics: CDC Authorizes Five Commercial Lab Companies
Biosurveillance

Monkeypox Diagnostics: CDC Authorizes Five Commercial Lab Companies

June 22, 2022
BARDA and JPEO-CBRND Back Cepheid’s Multiplex Test for Influenza, SARS-CoV2 and RSV
Health Security

Resurgent COVID-19, Flu and Other Viruses are Pushing New Zealand’s Health System to the Limit

June 2, 2022
Politics and Pandemic Fatigue Doom California’s Covid Vaccine Mandates
Public Health

Politics and Pandemic Fatigue Doom California’s Covid Vaccine Mandates

May 31, 2022
Load More

Latest News

Poliovirus Detected in London Sewage: Response Measures Emphasize Wastewater Surveillance and Vaccination Gaps

Poliovirus Detected in London Sewage: Response Measures Emphasize Wastewater Surveillance and Vaccination Gaps

June 22, 2022
Monkeypox Diagnostics: CDC Authorizes Five Commercial Lab Companies

Monkeypox Diagnostics: CDC Authorizes Five Commercial Lab Companies

June 22, 2022
UK Health Security Agency Widens Monkeypox Vaccine Umbrella for Outbreak Control

UK Health Security Agency Widens Monkeypox Vaccine Umbrella for Outbreak Control

June 21, 2022
Influenza Research

New Way to Identify Influenza A Virus Lights Up When Specific Virus Targets are Present

June 20, 2022

Subscribe

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Subscribe

© 2022 Stemar Media Group LLC

No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe

© 2022 Stemar Media Group LLC