Families, colleagues cry out: Lagos Ebola patients neglected, critically ill

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
Punch