( CNN ) The last time Dr. Rick Sacra went to Liberia , he returned home to the United States in a medevac airplane , not sure if he would die of the Ebola he 'd contracted while taking care of patients . But Sacra recovered from the virus he contracted in August and Thursday he is headed back to Liberia . He calls the West African nation his `` second home . '' He lived there from 1995 to 2010 and has made about a dozen trips since then . But he said this time he 'll have a different perspective . `` Having spent three days in the treatment unit in Liberia , I really feel for those who are sick , '' Sacra said from his home in Holden , Massachusetts . The third American to contract Ebola , Sacra remembers the `` spartan '' Liberian hospital with the uncomfortably thin mattress and the ever-present strong smell of bleach . Because doctors and nurses had to suit up in protective care , they only came around to see patients every three hours , so if he needed something he had to wait . `` You spend a lot of time alone and lonely , '' he said . Sacra said he hopes this makes him a better doctor . `` I think it makes me more sensitive to where people are coming from and how they might be feeling and why they might be discouraged , '' he said . Sacra was evacuated from Liberia to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha , one of four hospitals in the United States with a biocontainment unit , where he received a blood transfusion from Dr. Kent Brantly , another American Ebola survivor , and the experimental drug TKM-Ebola . `` I never felt like I was not going to make it , '' he said when he was released from the hospital on September 25 . This upcoming trip will be easier than his August trip in one big way : He wo n't have to worry about contracting Ebola , because he 's now immune to the strain of the disease responsible for the current epidemic . But it will be more difficult in another way : He knows many of his friends in Liberia lost family members and colleagues to Ebola this fall , and he wo n't be able to comfort them with a hug , because hugging , or even shaking hands , is forbidden in order to cut down on the spread of the disease . He said now that the number of Ebola patients in Liberia has gone down dramatically , he 's not needed to work in the Ebola ward . Instead , he 'll be involved in evaluating and triaging patients who come into the ELWA Hospital , run by SIM , a Christian missionary group . He hopes to return to his regular schedule of working four weeks in Liberia every three months . He said he misses the food -- potato greens , palm butter and peanut soup -- and he misses his friends and colleagues . He also hopes his trip reminds the rest of the world that Ebola , and many other diseases , are still a huge threat in West Africa . `` The needs in Liberia are still tremendous , '' he said . `` Even before Ebola the health care system was very weak and barely functioning . I just feel that God has opened the door for me to make a difference . I was to continue doing that if I can . '' CNN 's Debra Goldschmidt contributed to this report .
American Dr. Rick Sacra was medevaced back to the U.S. sick with Ebola . He got sick while treating patients in Liberia . Score: 6