D
ennis
Akagha, the fiance of Justina Ejelonu, the First Consultant Hospital
nurse who died after being infected with the deadly Ebola virus by
Liberian Patrick Sawyer, in this exclusive interview with Vanguard spoke about how his late fiancee contracted
the deadly disease, how she lost their unborn child
while battling with Ebola, and also revealed that Justina
had just landed the job at the hospital and met Sawyer on her first day there. He also spoke on how he got
infected with the virus and how he finally got discharged. Fimd the
in-depth interview after the cut...
On his relationship with the late Justina, Dennis said;
"The truth
is that Justina and I were not legally married, we were planning for
our traditional marriage in October and she just got this job. She was a
qualified graduate nurse and got the job at the First Consultant
Hospital in Lagos. She resumed duty at the hospital on the 21st of July, while Patrick Sawyer was admitted at the hospital on the 20th. He
was her first patient. She was one of the nurses that nursed him. She
was pregnant and so her immune system was weak, which made it easy for
her to contract the disease. On that first day which was a Monday,
she was having some pregnancy symptoms, but I just encouraged her to go
because it was her first day at work. Sawyer was her first patient. The next day, Tuesday, she didn’t work on Sawyer. Wednesday and Thursday, she was off. Then on Friday, Patrick Sawyer died. They didn’t know he had Ebola, it was three days later that they realized it was Ebola" he said
On how he found out she had contracted the deadly virus, he said
"It
was after Sawyer died that she told me she nursed him but that she was
on gloves. She even thanked God that she didn’t have direct contact with
him. The fever continued and we thought it was just pregnancy symptoms
and even when she went to her hospital, they confirmed the same thing.
She took drugs and ran tests, yet it persisted. At night, she was
usually cold and feverish and her body temperature was usually very
high. At a point, I began to suspect that she had contacted the virus. I
did some research on the disease and realised that she was having
similar symptoms. On the 14th of
August, it became serious, she started stooling and vomiting. I had to
clean up everything. All of a sudden, she started bleeding and she
started crying that she had lost the pregnancy. I had to call her
relatives and other people. The bleeding persisted and I had to clean up
everything. Initially I was not
wearing gloves because I felt I had already been exposed to the virus.
But later I cautioned myself and started wearing nylon on my hands. But I
couldn’t stay away from her. I kept consoling her. Even when I took her
to the hospital, she wanted to hold me and I told her to also consider
my safety. She managed to hold herself and was able to find her way out
in a pool of her blood. We chartered a taxi to the hospital, but first, I
took her to First Consultant Hospital because I felt they should know
more. When we got there, I was directed to IGH, Yaba. I told the taxi
driver to take us there. The driver wasn’t even aware of what was going
on as he took us to Yaba. Justina
was on the floor for 30 minutes before she was attended to. She was
screaming that she was going to die. She was seriously bleeding, she had
to come out of the taxi and lay on the floor. I ran around, trying to
get doctors to attend to her. After everything, they took her in, took
her blood samples and the following day, the result came out that it was
Ebola. They washed the taxi with chlorine and also bathed the taxi
driver and I with chlorine spray. At
that point, the taxi driver knew what was going on, he couldn’t even
take me home because he was so scared. I had to look for somewhere to
pass the night in the hospital. Early the next morning, I left the
Hospital. The taxi driver is alive today, nothing happened to him. We
have been checking on him and the last time we spoke he told me, he was
fine" he said.
On what happened after he was exposed to the virus, Dennis said;
"14
days after I was exposed to Ebola, my temperature rose from the usual
35.2 degrees centigrade to 37.2. The Lagos State government gave me a
thermometer the day I dropped Justina off at the centre. It took them
two straight weeks to visit my home and to disinfect it. Before they
came, I had already done the much I could do. I used bleach and
detergent to clean the whole house, furniture and clothes inclusive. We
should be reminded and educated that a healthy person with Ebola virus
cannot get anybody infected, except if the person is sick and totally
down with the virus like what happened to Sawyer and to my late
wife-to-be, Justina. I contacted the virus because Justina was very sick
and I was taking care of her without any appropriate protection. When
we knew what we were dealing with it was almost too late for me as I had
already contacted the virus" he said.
On what was done for him after his visit to the Isolation centre, Dennis said
"The
Lagos State government sent health professionals to check on me
regularly to know how l was doing or if l had the signs of the virus
manifesting. So they used to come around to check on me. At some point
they created scenes with their visits. I was embarrassed and I was
stigmatized. I complained severely to them that I didn’t like what they
were doing. Then, one Saturday
they visited again, I complained about the pains I was beginning to
experience; excruciating pains around my waist. I started praying and
asking people to pray for me. Before
this time, I believed in the Holy Communion, so I usually take it daily
and do feet washing. I was going to the hospital daily to see late
Justina. Initially, I was seeing her through the window and she would
say I should take her out of the hospital. She complained of lack of
care. Perhaps, Justina would have
survived the virus, if not for the state she was in. Her immune system
was down because she was pregnant. Along the line, she had a miscarriage
and lost the baby due to the Ebola virus disease. The
doctors, who were supposed to do an evacuation on her couldn’t do it
because they claimed that an evacuation was too risky as she was heavily
infected and may pass on the virus to another person. Since
nothing was done even after the bleeding had stopped, it led to more
complications for her because the already dead foetus somehow got rotten
in the womb and started a damaging process which led to further
complication. Meanwhile, she was still stooling and vomiting and since
nobody could dare to touch her, she was left on top of her excretions
even when she couldn’t do much for herself due to her weak state. She
was given her incisions and other drugs. I believe if some people survived Justina should have been one of them. At a point, I wished I was a doctor myself; I would have taken the risk of doing the evacuation because it really affected her".
On the last day he say his late fiancee, Dennis said
"The
last day I saw her, I had to go inside the ward because she was so
unkempt as nobody attended to her. At that time, the quarantined
patients were in the former facility where there was no water and she
had messed up herself again. I had to look for water to clean her up,
change her pampers and arrange her bedding. Since I was aware of what I
was dealing with, I got myself protected while cleaning up the place. I
made sure she looked better than when I saw her. Justina was shivering
the last day I saw her, one side of her stomach was already swollen, and
her legs were also swollen. I prayed for her.At a point, she needed oxygen and the hospital couldn’t provide it. Her friends had to provide it. That was the last day I saw her. On Sunday
Morning, I called her line like I usually did before visiting her, but
she didn’t pick her calls. When I got to the hospital, I was told that
she was dead".
Asked if late Justina was taking his calls while she was at the Isolation center, Dennis said;
"Yes,
in fact she called me that last day and I knew she was going to give
up, because she was saying some funny things. She said I should tell my
people to go and meet her father so as to finalize our marriage plans,
that she’s leaving that place.
Asked if he was not scared that he would die form the illness seeing that his Fiancees health was deteriorating, Dennis said;
"I
personally don’t believe in taking medications. I had the mentality
that I wasn’t sick. I told the government what I was experiencing. On
the day they came to pick me up for treatment, all of a sudden, my
temperature went back to normal. The shivering and pains were all gone.
So they decided that they would be checking on me. But it got to a point
people stopped selling things to me. It was as if the government got a
report that I shouldn’t be around. So, they came and said I should go
with them that they wanted to take my blood sample. I went with them and
they took my blood sample, I was kept in a ward known as the ‘suspected
ward. The result came out and it
was positive. I was then taken to a confined ward. One of the doctors
from UNICEF, a white lady told me that they were having issues with the
results and that they would have to re-run the tests. They did the tests
again and it was still positive. I told them that it wasn’t my result
and that I was healthy. I was even doing my usual exercises (press-ups)
every morning. I kept telling them that I wasn’t sick. They took my
blood sample the third time. That night, they told me that I tested
negative in the last result and that I don’t have any reason to remain
there. That was how I was discharged" he said
Speaking
on what was hapening to his job as he was under isolation, Dennis said;
"I was a marketer in an oil and gas company. I worked on commission
basis, but at a point, I realized that people were not calling me and
when I called they won’t pick my calls. Even the person that I report
directly refused to pick my calls and also refused to associate with me.
Justina and I just got our jobs, she got hers at First Consultant
Hospital and I got mine as a marketer with the oil and gas company.
On whether the government or First Consultant Hospital owes late Justina's family some form of compensations, Dennis said;
"Although,
no amount of money they give to the family will bring her back I think
the government owes Justina’s family a lot because she died trying to
save a situation. Justina died in active service as her death wasn’t
natural".
On how his status changed from postive to negative, Dennis said
"I was reading
a book on healing and taking of the Holy Communion. So I learnt to take
Holy Communion morning, afternoon and night. I also engaged myself in
feet-washing every day before going to bed. The Almighty God saved me;
the Holy Spirit healed me. It wasn’t as though l didn’t fall sick as l
had direct contact with Justina but the Almighty God healed me. When I
was discharged, I got to my house on Saturday evening and spent two hours the next day, Sunday,
thanking God on my own. I didn’t go to church or anywhere because of
the already established stigma but today I can confidently attend church
activities because I guess they all know I’m free now. I know my faith
and belief healed me. God also worked for me apart from the fact that my
immune system is also working. I believe I got healed also because
friends prayed for me" he said.
Ms Lumbreras’s family members revealed her ‘secret indgredients’ to a
long life, which are good nutrition, chocolate, good sleep and never
getting married. The birthday girl’s grandaughter Miriam Alvear, told
Mexico’s El Horizonte newspaper that despite her granny’s respectable
age she still often entertains her relatives with incredible stories.
For example, Ms Lumbreras narrated how they had to run away from their
homes and hide in caves in order to be forced into the Mexican army.
