By Emmanuel Ukudolo, Lagos
November 4, 2015 – Ada Igonoa, the only female doctor at First Consultant Hospital who survived Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has given birth to a baby girl.
She gave birth to baby at the Greater El-Monte Community Hospital, California. At birth, the baby weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce.
World Health Organisation(WHO), made the announcement in a statement. According to WHO, “ First Consultant Medical Centre has officially announces that resident staff and Ebola Survivor, Dr. Ada Igonoh gave birth to a baby girl a few hours ago.
Dr. Igonoh is the only female medical doctor to have survived the deadly disease. Her supervisor and mentor, Ada Adadevoh paid the supreme prize while battling with the index case, Patrick Sawyer, the American Liberia.
Ebola entered Nigeria via Sawyer, who was working for Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) who visited Nigeria allegedly for a conference on July 20, 2014.
He fell sick at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and was rushed to ECOWAS office, Onikan, from where he was hurried to First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, Lagos
Ada was placed under medical surveillance since conception to ensure that her child is Ebola-Free.
“The baby, upon birth, has been certified Ebola-free”, the statement added.
Staff and friends of First Consultants Medical Centre welcome the news with a lot of celebration.
For those who may not know so much about the doctor, we reproduced excerpts of her interview shortly after the Patrick Sawyer incident when she and other doctors in First Consultant Hospital paid a visit to former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.
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”, she said.
