Relatives and associates of the female medical doctor and other health
workers who contracted the Ebola Virus Disease from the late
Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, share the gloomy experiences of the
victims with TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI and AFEEZ HANAFI.
"Go there
yourself and witness firsthand the condition under which they are being
taken care of,” Dr. Helen Boyo-Ekwueme charged at one of the journalists
inquiring about the welfare of the health workers battling with Ebola,
at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.
The atmosphere
was tense. Relatives and professional colleagues of the female medical
doctor and other health workers, who contracted the disease from the
late Liberian- American, Patrick Sawyer, had gathered to brief
journalists at a press conference which held in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Boyo-Ekwueme, a pathologist, and one of the concerned relatives kept on
laying emphasis on the fact that the female medical doctor must not be
left to die.
Noting that the press conference was not called to
trade blames with the Federal Government or the Lagos State Government,
she painted a picture of utter neglect of the female doctor and her
medical colleagues who have been placed in isolation at the IDH. The
pathologist who claimed to have been to the IDH in company with other
family members and professional colleagues alleged that the Ebola
patients were not been properly looked after. Arguing that proper basic
treatment and immune boosting drugs that can be of help to the patients
were generally lacking, she concluded that only “international help”
could make them live a little longer.
She lamented, “We are not
fighting anybody. We are simply giving voice to the voiceless. Those
people in isolation at the IDH cannot voice out these concerns. Let them
have basic treatment. It
shouldn’t be as if we just stood there and
abandon them and watch them die one by one. “They are human beings. That
female doctor is a patriotic Nigerian and she needs to be helped. You
people (journalists) should go there and see the surroundings where they
are being treated. You would wonder if these are human beings who still
have relatives. “They are just being left on their own. Nobody is
counselling them. They are just there as if they have been forgotten. We
should remember that they didn’t ask to contract Ebola and it can
happen to anybody. We are appealing for international help for these
health workers.”
Spokesperson for the group of seven concerned
family members and colleagues of the Ebola victims, Dr. Ladi Okuboyejo,
buttressed Boyo-Ekwueme’s claims stating that people including medical
personnel deployed were now running away from the ailing victims.
Explaining that the Ebola outbreak was beyond the capacity of the scary
Nigerian physicians, Okuboyejo insisted that the conditions under which
the Ebola victims were being looked after was appalling. Okuboyejo, a
medical practitioner, stated that there was a dearth of requisite drugs
and basic medical supplies needed by the victims adding that the poor
general sanitary condition of the isolation facility was despicable.
“If
a health facility doesn’t have light, doesn’t have water and the
sanitary system is not working properly then we have got a problem. Now
the patients are critically ill and their condition is getting worse by
day. People, including some medical personnel, are now running away from
them.
“The reality is that the disease is beyond our capacity to handle in this country. The international
community
needs to rise up to our aid. The victims are not being properly
treated. Forget that the Nigeria Medical Association is on strike, we
cannot handle it,” he stated.
But as the concerned associates of
the Ebola victims lamented the state of affairs with their loves ones
at the press conference, a close family source confided in one of our
correspondents that the American doctor had been the one personally
footing the bill for the purchase of basic medical supplies for the
victims. The family source who preferred anonymity stated that a long
list of medical and general need items presented to the authorities by
the foreign physician had yet to be supplied.
“Where is the $12m
the Federal Government said it released to fight Ebola. Remember that
the matron and the ECOWAS protocol officer are already dead. Do they
want all of them to start dying one after the other,” the source added.
As
they took turns to address journalists, another immediate family member
of one of the patients, Deji Akinyanju, drew the microphones to himself
and began his own round of lamentation. Akinyanju who declined to name
her ailing relative, stated that the feedbacks he has got from the
isolation centre showed that the Ebola victims’ health was fast
deteriorating. He alleged that the Nigerian physicians working with the
American WHO expert were those with little or no experience in managing
the highly contagious disease. With a note of disappointment in his
voice, Akinyanju, who said he had been visiting his critically ill
relative at the IDH stated, that the WHO expert have also highlighted
the need for more experienced hands to help salvage what remains of the
health of the isolated health workers.
“There is a need for more
medical personnel that will help look after them. Certain immune
booster could also have been easily given to them. We are just concerned
family members. But from what we have seen we think more can be done to
help them,” Akinyanju said.
When contacted, the Lagos State
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, was unavailable for comments.
His telephone line rang out when one of our correspondent
contacted him. Also, a text message sent to him, was not replied to as at press time on Thursday.
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