Five Nigerians who survived the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in
Lagos, Southwest Nigeria have recounted their ordeal in the hand of
Ebola, saying it was close shave with death.
The five survivors, out of the nine which survived the deadly disease
in Nigeria were hosted by Governor Babatunde Fashola at the State
House, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Thursday.
Each of the survivor recounted his ordeal and shared his testimony of deliverance from the deadly disease and the grip of death.
One of the survivors, a staff of the First Consultant Medical Centre,
Dr. Morris Ibeawuchi said he was the first person to receive the late
Patrick Sawyer, the index case, when he was rushed to the hospital,
saying it was like a joke as he did not know what came upon him 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. I asked him
why he was at 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
lever function test was not available. I told Dr. Adadevoh about the
Malaria Parasite 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,” he explained.
Ibeawuchi said Adadevoh tried as much as possible to get through to
the Lagos State Ministry of Health as he was again, asked to take
Sawyer’s sample, adding that since he had already had contact, he was
the person that always took his samples.
“Before I went there, It took me hours. But I summoned courage to do
my duties. So, I went there. When Sawyer was trying to explain, I asked
him to hold his peace and that he should not tell me anything. After
that, I took samples and dropped it at the blood unit. The next day, Dr.
Adadevoh was so busy. She was just going from one place to the other,
working hand in hand with the Lagos State Ministry of Health.
“She called me later in the evening and told me to be careful. She
said she just got a call that the result of the test showed the feature
of Ebola Virus Disease. She warned me to be careful and that Sawyer
should be treated as the case of Ebola, not even the suspected case of
Ebola. We placed him under surveillance. But Sawyer died. But on the
12th day, it was very terrible. My temperature is always 36. But that
same fateful day, I checked my temperature and it was 37.7. I felt the
whole world was against me. I was down with fever and became so weak. I
lost my appetite,” he stated.
According to him, “at that moment, I needed some people to talk to. I
left my house, and in that house, I have my brother, his wife and the
two kids. When I developed the symptoms, I was so bothered about my
family members. I had to put a call to Lagos State Ministry of Health.
The ministry asked me to make contact with my family and so on. At that
time, I was still thinking it was malaria. I took anti-malaria drugs and
nothing changed. The rate at which my temperature rose was screaming.
At the first check, my temperature was 37.7. It rose to 38. The highest I
measured was 41. The health ministry came and decontaminated the whole
house.
“When I was at the isolation centre, the Lagos Ministry of Health
attended to me. I was stooling and vomiting. I even became weaker. There
was a night I thought my existence on this earth had ended. I was
stooling and vomiting. At that point, Dr. David was the only doctor
attending to us. He tried a lot to secure life. He had to rehydrate me.
After that, they left me to my fate. That was around 9:00 p.m. How I
made it that night was miraculous to me. I know the hand of God was upon
my life. Dr. David came the next morning. As he was leaving the night
before, I was gasping and found it difficult to breathe.
“At the time, Dr. David came, I was already down. He was dumbfounded.
After about few minutes, he told me that my condition was so bad that
he did not know that I was going to make it. He thought he would meet my
lifeless body at the isolation centre. But I am alive today to the
glory of God. After some days, he took my samples for investigation. It
was positive. He took another sample, and it was positive. He took third
samples, it was negative. At that point again, the fever that had
subsided began. I said God: is it Ebola again? He then told me that it
might be malaria. He placed me on anti-malaria drugs. After sometime,
the whole thing subsided. That is how I survived the virus.”
Another survivor, Dr. Fadipe Akinniyi, also of the First Consultant
Medical Centre said he was happy to be alive after surviving the deadly
disease, saying that he contacted the disease by simply opening the
door.
“I am most happy here today because as a 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 and 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.
“They told me not to worry that they would come and pick me up. In
another four hours, they came with ambulances and before I knew it, I
found myself at Yaba isolation centre. It all happened like a dream
because I have read a lot about Ebola even while in schools, we had a
lot of things on haemorrhagic virus, how it wreaks direct havoc on human
beings, bleeding and all that. You continue to bleed until you are
dead.
“I was very devastated but I kept the faith. I remember Dr Adesina
telling me when we got there that I would leave this place and that no
matter what happens, I would leave this place. She said as it is, people
survive the virus, that I should not mind that I would survive the
disease. So, I kept my faith and with the help of God, I am very
grateful to Dr. David who was the initial doctor who attended to us
before our doctors who were on strike finally emerged.
“Dr David really tried. He really tried. He committed himself totally
to us and if I should have a time to meet him again, I think I will
tell him he is a very brave man, leaving his comfort zone to come and
treat us here in Nigeria. Knowing that with these people, after a couple
of time, you could actually contract the disease. It is not easy. I
thank God because with time, things got better. The vomiting stopped,
the fever subsided and eventually, I was declared Ebola negative. I was
very happy to reunite with my family and everything changed back to
normal,” he explained.
Dr. Adaora Igonoh also of First Consultants described her survivor
as an act of God, saying that the survivors were privileged to still be
alive.
“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.
“We remember the people that we lost, the wonderful people who risked
their lives and we say that we would never forget them, we can’t. Our
lives have been changed, every one of us who went through this ordeal,
we know that we are better for it. Everything happens for a reason and
we must find out the purpose and the reason why we went through what we
went through.(Read her full story here:
http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2014/09/16/how-i-survived-ebola-dr-ada-igonoh/
“We want to say thank you very much to the Lagos State Government,
and the Ministry of Health as well as the Federal Ministry of Health.
The Centre for Disease Control, I was a full witness to the efforts to
contain the virus. In fact there was a time I asked for chicken and
chips, I was at the Isolation Centre, and it was brought, I was
surprised. I asked because I wanted to see if they would honour my
request and they brought chicken and chips to me, I was amazed,” she
stated.
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