According to FrontPage Africa, the
last acts of Patrick Sawyer, the Ebola infected Liberian who died in
Lagos, might have resulted in the transfer of the virus to innocent
health workers.
Mr. Sawyer is said to have had an “indiscipline” encounter with nurses and health workers at the First Consultants Hospital inObalende where he was being treated.
According to the report, Mr. Sawyer was asked
if he had come into contact with anyone who had the virus but he
answered in the negative.
Doctors at the hospital decided to test him anyway and when they told him he had Ebola, he allegedly went into a rage and urinated on the health workers attending to him.
“…Upon being told he had Ebola, Mr.
Sawyer went into a rage, denying and objecting to the opinion of the
medical experts. “He was so adamant and difficult that he took the tubes
from his body and took off his pants and urinated on the health
workers, forcing them to flee.”
The hospital would later report that it
resisted immense pressure to let out Sawyer from its hospital against
the insistence from some higher-ups and conference organizers that he
had a key role to play at the ECOWAS convention in Calabar, the Cross
River State capital.
In fact, FrontPageAfrica has been
informed that officials in Monrovia were in negotiations with ECOWAS to
have Sawyer flown back to Liberia.
A text message in possession of
FrontPageAfrica from the ECOWAS Ambassador in Liberia, responding to a
senior GoL official reads: Your Excellency, the disease control
department of the Federal Ministry of Health just contacted me through
the hospital now, insisting that Mr. Sawyer be evacuated for now. Pls
advise urgently.”
FrontPageAfrica has now learnt that
Sawyer exhibited similar indiscipline behavior during his sister’s stay
at the Catholic Hospital in Monrovia where she was taken because he
noticed she was bleeding profusely and was later found to be a victim of
Ebola.
Sawyer was seen with blood on his
clothing after his sister’s death and had earlier demanded that she be
placed in a private room.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf cited
indiscipline and disrespect as a key reason why Sawyer contracted the
Ebola virus. She said his failure to heed medical advice put the lives
of other residents across the nation’s border at risk.
As one of the nurses who treated Sawyer died
today, fears are currently being fanned in the country with some people
suggesting that he might have knowingly spread the disease.
The Nigerian Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu has
confirmed 7 cases of the disease and has assured that urgent measures
are being put in place to ensure that the virus does not spread further.
