August 15, 2014
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. http://www.punchng.com/news/lagos-ebola-patients-neglected-critically-ill-relatives-colleagues-2/
