How I survived Ebola – Late nurse' fiance, Dennis Akagha speaks
Dennis 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.
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.
