The Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola and some
members of the state’s Executive Council, yesterday, hosted 5 out of nine
survivors of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). The survivors are Dennis
Akagha, husband of late Justina, a nurse at First Consultant Hospital; Dr
Fadipe Akinniyi; Dr. Ibeawuchi Morris; Dr. Adaowa Igowoh and Kelechi Enemuo,
wife of late Dr. Iyke Samuel Enemuo. Three of the survivors who are staff of
First Consultant Hospital, contracted the virus from the index case, late
Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian who brought in the disease into Nigeria on July
20, 2014.
Recounting her ordeal, Dr. Igowoh said, “It is a day of joy. I want to say that we are here today because of God. It was He that made us to survive. We are privileged to see this day and to be here with everybody, it is an honour. Thank you so much Governor Fashola, we can’t thank you for everything. We at First Consultants Medical Centre took a risk, we risked our lives because we knew that we wanted to ensure the safety of Lagosians, Nigerians and humanity because we are a global village; from a small village it can spread to the world and we knew the implications, but we said we would risk our lives and we would not let the index case leave the hospital.”
Dr Akinniyi: “I am most happy here today because as matter
of fact, when everyone was running helter-skelter, I told myself I only opened
the door and by the virtue of that, nothing should happen to me. I never knew I
was deceiving myself, until the day I recorded my temperature and there was a
kind of spike. I told myself what is going on. Once I have treated malaria a
while ago and I told myself that it could be malaria. I used anti malaria drugs
but nothing changed, rather it was getting worse. Eventually, I went to a
private hospital to treat myself because I did not want to admit it was Ebola.
I felt they would be able to proffer solutions to all my problems but it wasn’t
to be so. Rather, it was becoming terrible and I started stooling and vomiting.
I summoned the courage and called the doctors at the monitoring units that my
temperature has been persistently high.”
Dennis: “I really want to appreciate and commend everything
you have done. My case was different, I wasn’t among the doctors, my wife, Justina
Echelonu Obioma happened to be one of the nurses that cared for the index case.
She got contact with the index case, when she came back home, she told me. We
didn’t know what was happening because she was having symptoms. She was two
months pregnant. She was feeling feverish. Infact that was her first day on the
job, it was her first day and her first patient was Patrick Sawyer. She just
resumed that day, I encouraged her to go to work, but she was reluctant because
of her situation, but I had to convince her to go and tell them in the Hospital
about her condition so that they can give her more time. That was just the
first day. When she came back, the following day she went to work again, then
the next two days, she was off. We were just at home when the case was
announced the case of Sawyer and she told me that she cared for him at the
hospital and I asked her if she was sure about what she said, because we have
been hearing about it. I asked her what kind of contact she had with him and
she said she used protective gloves. Hearing that, I felt rest assured.”
Morris Ibeawuchi: “I was the person that received Patrick
Sawyer the day he was rushed to First Consultant Medical Centre. It was like a
joke. I did not know what came upon me that day. Unlike me, I was so reluctant
to attend to him. But I was compelled by my colleagues to attend to him. When I
got there, I was just talking to him. It was very unlike me. Being a doctor,
you must examine your patient. After due examination, I asked him some questions.
But Patrick Sawyer lied to me, even the ECOWAS Protocol Officer, who sat there,
kept quiet.
“He asked him why he was in First Consultant. He lied to me
that he was in a conference and felt so weak. As a result, people now rushed
him to First Consultant not knowing that he collapsed at the airport. On that
very day, the ECOWAS Protocol Officer was there and did not say anything. After
sometime, I took his samples and sent it to the lab. I also informed Dr.
Adadevoh (now of blessed memory). I informed her. She told me to get back to
her as soon as the result is out. When the result came out, everything was
normal. But that night, the liver function test was not available. I told Dr.
Adadevoh about MP result, and she was so confused and shivering because the man
came in with a temperature of 39.7.
“She said I should just admit him. We treated him. We
commenced with the malaria treatment. The next morning, Dr. Adadevoh came
around and we all went there. At that time, the liver function test was already
out and the result was so terrible. That made us to be so concerned. After we
went around, Dr. Adadevoh went for her daily clinic. It was at that point that
one of the ECOWAS officers now came in and brought us information that Patrick
Sawyer collapsed at the airport. After that, she asked whether I got the
information. That was how the whole thing started. From there, we instituted
barrier nursing technique. She tried as much as possible to get through to the
Lagos State Ministry of Health. Again, I was asked to get Sawyer’s sample.”
Dr. Igonoh had earlier recounted her experience last week
that saying, “My research gave me ammunition. I read that as soon as the virus
gets into the body, it begins to replicate really fast. It enters the blood
cells, destroys them and uses those same blood cells to aggressively invade
other organs where they further multiply. Ideally, the body’s immune system should
immediately mount up a response by producing antibodies to fight the virus. If
the person is strong enough, and that strength is sustained long enough for the
immune system to kill off the viruses, the patient is likely to survive. If the
virus replicates faster than the antibodies can handle however, further damage
is done to the organs. Ebola can be likened to a multi-level, multi-organ
attack but I had no intention of letting the deadly virus destroy my system. I
drank more ORS. I remember saying to myself repeatedly, “I am a survivor, I am
a survivor.”
Sympathising with those who lost their lives to Ebola, Mr.
Fashola called for a 1-minute silence, while he stated that: “We sympathize
with you for the trauma that you went though. Perhaps it was avoidable. But I
am sure that hard lessons have been learnt. Beyond that, I must congratulate
you the survivors of the EVD. I felicitate with you and members of your family
and friends. But most importantly, I thank you so much for coming forward
because you took a great thing and you showed so much courage. And you have
helped us to take next step forward. And you have helped us to put an end to
the spread of the EVD.”
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