•Obi commends hospital for saving Nigeria of epidemic
The country may have fought and subdued the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), but the enormity of losses it left in its trail is yet to go away. At First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, in Lagos, the hospital, where the disease berthed, the management and staff are still in the throes of pain and anguish.
They are yet to fully and finally quantify and overcome the string of losses that came their way after Patrick Sawyer, who imported the disease into the country arrived their facility. The hospital lost two doctors: Stella Adadevoh, a senior consultant and Dr. Abaniwo, as well as two nurses, who contracted the virus from the index case.
Lately, the hospital was cleared to resume full clinical operations after three rounds of comprehensive “state certified decontamination process” by the Nigerian Centre of Disease Control, Ebola Emergency Centre. Since then, some prominent Nigerians have been visiting to commend and commiserate with the hospital and staff following the human and material losses, which the disease brought to them.
Last Wednesday, former Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi, joined the growing number of eminent Nigerians going over to thank Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri and his team of medical professionals at First Consultant Hospital for their clear sense of heroism, patriotism and professionalism. He also commended Governor Fashola for his efforts, noting that “he scored high marks” in all he did during the trying time and for visiting the hospital, thereafter.
Daily Sun gathered that as soon as the hospital was reopened for business, Mr. Peterside Akande, Chairman, IBTC Stanbic Bank Plc; Mr. Tunde Ayeni, Chairman, Skye Bank Plc, Dr. ABC Orjiakor; Mr. John Momoh, CEO, Channels Television; Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, officials of Diamond Bank Plc had shown support, one way or the other.
Obi, paid made the impromptu visit to the hospital as part of his own way of saying ‘well done’ to the pack of professionals who staked their lives to save the Nigerian community from the epidemic. It was such a solemn but brief visit that resurrected the pain and anguish, which lay buried right in hearts of staff of the hospital.
On hand to receive Obi on the occasion were Dr. Ohiaeri, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital and some of the remnants of his doctors: Dr. Ada Igonoh, the 28-year old, who survived the scourge and Dr. Pakash Chaurasia. The visitor was later taken round the facility to see what the hospital was putting in place: a neonatal centre to take care of premature babies born at four to seven months, a library for Ebola research, and some new lines of equipment.
The meeting was such an emotional one for everyone. The hosts and guests alike had squeezed into the fairly, spacious but sufficiently descent room which serves as office of Ohiaeri. The room airconditioner over his head was busy spewing cold and humid air. Every attention was focused on this tall, wiry man, who our correspondent gathered is a consummate obstetrics and gynecology specialist. He is of slight built, but his frail frame had borne such a weighty burden, which saved Nigeria, a calamity of indescribable proportion, yet very little has been said about him and his role.
After the traditional exchange of greetings, Obi told his host that “yesterday when I came into town, I attended a function where I made up mind that I was going to visit our friends at First Consultant Hospital and hear their story. So much has happened to you in the past months and you just have to tell your story to the world. If you don’t, you will be like a man who lit his candle and put it under the bed. You are the man who has borne enormous burden for the country.”
When Ohiaeri began to speak, his voice betrayed a man still in the grip of pain and anguish. His words too were as cold as ice, which could taw every heart.
“Thank you for coming here , Sir,” he began. “The events of the past months have been very overwhelming, to say the least. I have refrained from speaking all these while because I wanted to tell my story is a sequential manner,” he said.
Taking a deep breath, he continued: “We have lost a lot of things – our laundry, cleaning, laboratory, nursing, monitoring line; name it. But none of these compares to our human resource losses. When people come here and ask me how much equipment we have lost, I say to them that the most important equipment to me are the people.
“I recall that some of my colleagues with whom we took decision together are now late, l cannot understand it. I wonder why am still alive and not dead? I wonder why the dead are not like me.
“Here in Lagos, we lost seven people as a result of Mr. Sawyer’s bioterrorism and four of such deaths were staff of First Consultant Hospital. That means that we bore the brunt of the disaster for the country.
“Look at Dr. Adadevo, for instance. Here was a doctor who used to take care of me because I’m hypertensive. She used to give me my drugs weekly. But before this Ebola experience, she gave me a dosage that was to last me for one month. Then I said to her, ‘it is like I have graduated now to taking one month dose’ and we laughed over it. She had her son in this hospital and I was the one who took the delivery.
“Look at Dr. Abaniwo, who died before Dr. Adadevo. He was with us for four years. He contracted the virus when he went over to intervene when Mr. Sawyer was harassing Dr. Adadevo at a time he (Sawyer) had become angry and restive. That was how we got into this.
“Evelyn was a widow and a nurse with four children – very humble, loyal and diligent. She was with us when Dr. Adadevo was delivered of her baby. She was the first person who welcomed Mr. Sawyer. She was part of this institution. Her death was heartbreak. It was total devastation. Soon after her death, the landlord threw her children out of their home. And we are doing all we can to take care of them. We have got them and accommodation and they have settled in.
“For Dr. Adadevo, she worked with me for 21 years. She was a smart professional who I took as my number one person. Look at this lady here (pointing at Dr. Ada Igonoh who survived the epidemic), I have adopted her as my daughter. She started work here on July 1, 2014, 20 days before the arrival of Mr. Sawyer. It was Dr. Adadevo who brought her here. At the isolation centre, she was two beds away from Dr. Adadevo. Yet, she was the one monitoring everyone in the hospital and giving us reports on hourly basis. That helped us to know what packages to bring to them and every line of action to take. In fact, it was right in her arms that our own late Justina died.”
The coming of Sawyer to the hospital
Recalling the how the late Sawyer brought the virus to the hospital and the country, he said: “When the gentleman was brought in here, he said he had malaria. We ran a series of test, which confirmed that he was malaria positive. Every other thing was normal. Twenty-four hours later, he wasn’t any better. By Tuesday, he was already having hemorrhagic symptoms – blood in his urine and eyes. That was how the alarm bell started ringing.
“It was at that point that Dr. Adadevo started suspecting the man must be having either Ebola or Lassa fever disease, more so when he was from Liberia. Then, we decided to question, to know whether he had had contact with any Ebola patient, but he denied that.
“For us as a people, that was the first time we were having such challenge. So we took his blood sample and sent to University of Lagos Teaching Hospital (LUTH), but the result was that it was a ‘signal.’
“Suspecting that he had Ebola, we notified him that we had to test him for the disease. Then he didn’t bother. But when told that we weren’t going to let him go, he went bananas. He refuse further medical care and demanded that we discharged him and that we should sign the paper indicating that he left hospital against doctors’ advice. Then, we decided to send his blood sample to Senegal, to the centre the US set up.
“When he was uncooperative, one of the doctor, who later died, went to his room to ask him why he was behaving that way, reminding him that we were trying to help him.”
Liberian ambassador to Nigerian came to the picture
“Shortly after, Liberian ambassador to Nigeria, certain Ambassador Conte, came into the matter. He insisted Mr. Sawyer must be released to proceed to Calabar because he had an import role to play there. He said if it were because of the money, he would put more than enough on the table. But I was unyielding. He then started howling: ‘What sort of doctor are you. You are arrogant. Don’t you know that you are infringing on this man’s fundamental human rights?’ I told him ‘with due respect, Sir, we won’t let him go. He may have the right to demand to leave the hospital, against medical advice, but I was relying on Superior Provision of the law to decline the request for the good of the public. The ambassador said he was coming to the hospital to personally take Sawyer away himself.
“That whole 24 hours of waiting for the result was for us, like a stay in limbo. At that point, we knew we had a legal trouble in our hands. What if the test came back and the man was Ebola negative? So we contacted our lawyers. We told them that we were taking a risk, but we trusted in the judgment of our physician.
“But after the test confirmed that Mr. Sawyer was Ebola positive, Ambassador Conte was no longer calling us. Rather he was contacting Professor Abulsalam Nasidi. He didn’t bother to come back to us.”
Ohiaeri recalled that he advised Dr. Adadevo to proceed to the isolation centre in Yaba, Lagos for the Ebola test, even when she said she felt okay. The test later confirmed that she was Ebola positive.
Obi speaks
Obi praise the act heroism displayed by the 161 hospital-work force, insisting that their effort saved the country a lot of heartache. He also praised Governor Fashola for rising to the challenge before the Federal Government came into the fray and for finding time to visit the hospital and inviting the survivors to his office in Ikeja.
“If not for the vigilance of the hospital and insistence that Mr. Patrick Sawyer should not be allowed to leave, the crisis would have been more complex and difficult to manage,” Obi said.
The former governor, who urged Nigerians to remain grateful to them and see them as heroes, sincerely thanked Governor Raji Fashola and the Lagos State Government for showing leadership at that critical time and President Goodluck Jonathan and the Federal Government for their response to the crisis, noting that if not for the promptness of the response, the crisis would have gone out of control.
He noted that the success in handling the crisis has brought international recognition to Nigeria’s ability to manage emergencies given the right leadership.
He also thanked good-spirited Nigerians that supported the hospital at their hour of need, especially Atedo Peterside, who was the first to call the hospital and offered moral and other support; Dr. ABC Orjiakor and others and urged other Nigerians to emulate them in service to their country and humanity.
Obi urge the state and Federal Government to come to the aid of First Consultant Hospital. He said that now that the hospital had been declared Ebola Virus free, that Nigerians should go back to using their facilities, describing it as comparable to the best in other parts of the world.
While conducting Obi round the hospital, Ohiaeri showed him some of the new lines of equipment that were being installed after the old ones were condemned. One of the new theatres was the neonatal theatre where infants would be managed.
He also took the guest to the Ebola library being constructed saying: “We want to dedicate this to all those who have departed and we hope that what we have learnt would be put in here. We believe that various agencies will be visiting here and the facility will stimulate the young ones.”
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