God Saved Our Lives: The Moving Story of Nigerians Who Conquered Ebola Virus Disease

It was an occasion for merriment and for sober reflection. For the five who made the visit, it was one tale after the other.

They include Dr. Adaora Igonoh, Dr. Fadipe Akiniyi and Dr. Ibeawuchi Morris all practicing with First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, Lagos and Mr. Dennis Akagha whose wife, Justina Echelenu , working as a nurse in the hospital died after her contact with the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer and Kelechi Enemuo whose husband, a medical doctor died of Ebola in Port Harcourt after treating a protocol officer of ECOWAS in a hotel. They relieve their thrilling encounter with death in their first encounter with journalists after they were discharged from the isolation centre in Lagos.

The Lagos State Governor Mr. Babatunde Fashola commended for their courage during the Ebola outbreak and for showing up as part of efforts to end stigmatisation of those who survived EVD. Excerpts:

‘ECOWAS Protocol Officer Lied to Me’

– Dr. 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 senior 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 brought him, kept quiet.

I asked him why he was in First Consultant. He said 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 international airport. On that very day, the ECOWAS Protocol Officer was there and did not say anything. After sometime, I took his blood samples and sent it to the laboratory. I also informed Dr. Adadevoh (now of blessed memory). 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 the Malaria Parasite(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 result 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 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 take Sawyer’s blood sample Since I had already had contact with him. Before I went there, it took me hours. But I summoned up courage and I went there. Sawyer was trying to explain, I told him to hold his peace and 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 features of Ebola Virus Disease. She warned that Sawyer should be treated as an Ebola case, not even a suspected case of Ebola. We placed him under surveillance. But Sawyer died. On the twelfth day after he died, my temperature was 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. At that moment, I needed some people to talk to. I left my house because in that house, I have my brother, my wife and 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 limit my contact with family members 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 scary.
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 and took me to the isolation centre where officials of 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. At that point, Dr. David was the only doctor attending to us. He tried to set the IV injection and when it failed, he 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 and I was calm and he felt dumbfounded, he said my condition was so bad that he felt he will meet my dead body the next day. He gave me ORS I think in Ebola the next thing is ORS. I was not taking the ORS but on few occasions I took it. Dr. David took my blood samples for investigation. It was positive. The second was also positive and the fever that had subsided stated again and I was placed on antimalarial and it subsided, and they took my sample and the result turned out negative and that was how I was discharged. I thank Fashola for his assistant, Dr. David was so devoted in caring for me.

Dr. David Left His Comfort Zone to Save Us

– Dr. Fadipe Akiniyi

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 checked my temperature and found it on the high side. I had 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 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 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 wreck 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. That no matter what happens, I would leave this place. She said 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 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.

We Wanted to Ensure Safety of Lagosians, Nigerians and Humanity

– Dr. Adaora Igonoh

Today is a glorious day; it’s a day of Joy. I want to say that we are here today because of God, we survived, we are privileged to see this day, to be here with everybody, its 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.

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 happened for a reason and we must find out the purpose and the reason why we went through it. 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. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming to the house to decontaminate, saving our families who were with us at the early part of the disease when we didn’t even know we were infected. We also hope that His Excellency will be able to visit our institution, thank you so much sir we are grateful.

My Wife Could Have Made It If We Had Reported Earlier

– Dennis Echelonu

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. In fact 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. In fact she came to the house and was thanking God that she used gloves. She was just praying and then the fever persisted and didn’t go down, but because of the assurance that she gave me, I felt well, maybe the fever was pregnancy induced, but it didn’t stop. Fever in the morning and night and the highest temperature she got was 41. She called her gynecologist because she was being conscious of what she could take and what she would not take. On the 14th day after her contact she went down, she started bleeding and vomiting and I think if we had taken her out of the house earlier, may be she could have made it.

Even when I went to the house, she threw up, she requested for pap, I made it for her, she threw up on me, there, I understood what I was up against, but I felt well, I was already 100 percent exposed, so I continued to clean her up and made sure she was okay. There was no way I could run away from her. I had to get a taxi for her and made sure the taxi man didn’t have any contact with her. Sometime the Taxi man will attempt to help her into the car, I refused. The response at the Infectious Disease Hospital was okay, at that point I was so careful. I trusted God for her, at a point, I think she gave up on herself, but at the point when I was taking care of her, my own symptoms started coming up.

I just felt I could not afford to come down with illness, because there would be nobody to take care of her or myself. Even when I go to the hospital to see her, I would return home with fever, my temperature rose from 35. 2 to 37.2, I was shocked. I was so dehydrated, I called my step mum who is a nurse, and she encouraged me to continue to take enough water, so I started taking lots of water until when she gave up. Two days after she died, the Lagos State Ministry of Health began to monitor me, call me regularly, to trace my contacts and to know my temperature and state of health. When the thing went out of hand, they said they would come and pick me, I agreed, but the next day, it became normal. They came back again to pick me, but I told them I was fine, I was confident of myself, I had faith in myself and knew that Ebola was not a death sentence, but seek early medical attention. I finally found myself as a suspected case and after being a suspected case for a while, I was praying continuous and I guess my prayer worked for me. People stood by us, it wasn’t easy. I felt weakness in my waist, muscles and ankle.

My being alive today, even though I lost someone, God knows why and has a reason for everything I just want to bless God and everybody who stood by us. Dr. David especially who did a lot of work on Justina. At a point, Justina believed she would be fine, before she gave up she gave me confidence that she would pull through, but she had also told a friend she was going to die, at that point she gave up on herself. This is a call to fulfill purpose, God has given us a second chance to know what we are here to do, to fulfill purpose and touch other people’s lives. Nigeria has beaten the record of high mortality.

Your Experience Will Encourage People to Seek Help

– Fashola

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 EDV. 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. I am sure that from today, people watching and listening to you especially those that are victims wherever they maybe, will be encourage to come forward, and seek help. And that people who stigmatize can change their approach. Sick people need help, care, love and affection. They did not need to be discriminated. Perhaps many of those who stigmatize people with disease will learn from the testimonies that you have given about people like Dr. David.

He risked everything so that you all can be alive. That is the way we should behave as human being. The truth is that this will not be the last infectious disease that human civilization will experience. At one time there was no cure for cholera, influenza and others. In a global world, the list will not end. It is courageous men and women like Dr. David, organization like the CDC and WHO, ministry of health and health workers like you who must lead that charge to confront such diseases. Thank you so much for taking this courageous step to help confront it. The truth is that in the development of our life, we chose career and we all have preference for different careers. But the careers that we chose sometimes bring consequences. These are some of the consequences.

And it is the dedication at which we do our works that decide if we survive or not. Dr. David should be an example for all of us about how to care for ourselves. He must be the kind of doctor you all must like to emulate.
All the past is now behind us, we must move forward. I couldn’t thank you enough for stepping forward to push us forward. Some people have declined to come forward, and we respect that. But I salute your courage to show the world that we can overcome infectious disease, we can get our lives back and we can go forward. And that we will not run away from anything that threaten us. There are so many stories from this experience, and fatality and mortality index have significantly reduced. But what is also profound is that this is the first time I am told that it has broken out in an urban centre.

It is also a learning course for the whole world. It will help those that are doing research to continue to track this virus and finally determine its full architecture and develop either a drug or a vaccine that would arrest the virus. That is the history that has been gathered over the years, people spent time following the virus and that was why we knew that the virus expires after 21 days. That was why we were able to understand it’s symptoms. But we are now learning that there are also strains and others. The research must continue and the work must continue until we overcome it.

I am thanking all those volunteers, contact tracers, health workers, First Consultants Hospital, residents of Lagos, the Federal Government of Nigeria, WHO and all those who rose up to support Lagos State Government in curtailing the virus.

Incidentally, today is that last day and hopefully by midnight today, I will get confirmation that the last case that is under surveillance I mean those who have had contact and are not ill, those that we are tracing, that the last case is also clear.

Ones we have that, we can move forward and go to deal with the business issues of Ebola. This is because some businesses have suffered, and we have to help them get back on their foot. You all have inspired us and you have showed us that all is not lost here. We are grateful and we thank you.
Contributed by Omamurhomuapho Thomas