Reports have emerged that Liberian Ebola
victim, Patrick Sawyer who died in a Lagos hospital, may have intentionally
infected scores of Nigerians. One of the Nigerian nurses who attended him died
on Tuesday and five others have tested positive to the virus. Several
more people are still in isolation pending their test status. A new and
extensive report by Front Page Africa chronicles his last hours in Lagos.
"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.”
In the aftermath of Sawyer’s death, diplomatic, ECOWAS and
medical authorities here are baffled over Sawyer’s deception, especially armed
with new information that his sister, Princess had died of the deadly virus and
his denial. Finance Ministry sources in Monrovia are in quiet murmur over what
they feel was a letdown by Sawyer for not being forthcoming with his peers he
worked with.
The ministry has since been temporarily shut
down and those who came in contact with Sawyer are on a 21-day forced
incubation monitoring process. "All senior officials coming in direct or
indirect contact with Mr. Sawyer has been placed on the prescribed 21 days of
observatory surveillance," the ministry said in a statement this week.
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.
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