BY Taiwo George
The death of Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh of First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, on August 19 opened a floodgate of tributes to a heroine who was hardly in the spotlight.
It is cheery to note the public recognition of her now-fatal role in preventing Patrick Sawyer from spreading Ebola to the rest of Lagos and Nigeria.
But in this interview with TheCable, septuagenarian Appolonia Osakwe who had several patient-doctor encounters with the late consultant, reveals that Adadevoh’s Ebola sacrifice was no one-off feat. She lived every day of her professional life for her patients.
Here is a breakdown of eight qualities that may or may not suffice to summarise Adadevoh’s relationship with her patients.
She was the best doctor in this world. She was the doctor for the poor, for the rich, for the young, in fact for the old – for everybody. I do not know the word to use. I just know that she is one of the best doctors that we have had in this world.
My first encounter with her was about 16 years ago when my grandchild fell sick; she was have running stomach, which we suspected to be malaria. So we took her to First Consultants Hospital.
While we were there, my grandchild was afraid of receiving injections. So this young doctor just walked in and said, “Children, what is the matter?” My grandchild said, “I don’t want to take injection”.
Dr. Adadevoh said “okay” and just dipped her hands in her pocket and brought out sweets. After giving my grandchild, she surprisingly just brought out her hand for injection and she was fine. You wouldn’t even know that she felt any pains, because of the way the doctor attended to her.
That shows you what I meant by saying that she was the doctor for the young, the old, the infant and all.
After that experience, my husband fell sick and we went to the hospital. My husband used to be the director of medical services at the Nigerian Railway Corporation. So he just retired and we were in our house and he said he needed to go to the hospital because he had constipation. We bought fruits and so on for him, but he insisted on going to the hospital.
My son suggested that we should fly him abroad, and we were even toying with the idea of taking him to Eko Hospital in Ikeja. But, finally, we went to First Consultants; and while we were there, trying to get doctors attend to him, Dr. Adadevoh just walked in a cheerful manner.
“Hello sir, hello ma,” she said. “How are you?”
She asked what we were there for. My husband wanted to stay for some time before the check-up, but the doctor said we should not worry and she assured us that all would be fine. She took care of him, checked his blood pressure, his temperature, in short general check-up.
After some time, my husband, who earlier went to the toilet to ease himself, wanted to go again but he could not make it. He just slumped and I was screaming the name of God.
After sometime, Dr. Adadevoh just came and said, “Excuse me, sir. We are discharging you; you are okay. My husband was very anxious to go and I said, “No doctor, you still have to examine him. Tell him to walk from here to there.” We were laughing, including my husband; but right there, my husband slumped again.
If you saw how worried Dr. Adedavoh was! She started running up and down, doing everything possible to revive him. She took proper care of him by herself; she did not even allow the ward attendants, I mean young nurses, to touch him.
She assured me that he would be fine, and she told my husband not worry and from that moment, she would come to our ward very early in the morning to attend to my husband even before getting dressed for work. She was with us throughout. She had a way of making my husband respond to treatment.
In the end, my husband gave up after eight days and we didn’t have money to pay for the expenses because there was no access to my husband’s account immediately after he died. This kind woman helped us to talk to the management of the hospital to be patient with us until when we were able to pay the bill.
When I came back from the burial at Onitsha, she came with provisions and so many other things. She even gave me N20, 000. She was a doctor that would treat you in the hospital and come to your house to ask of you to make sure you were okay. Even if the person is dead, she would make sure that she got in touch with his or her family to know how they were faring.
We really lost a good human being – the best doctor that I have ever known in my lifetime. I am 78 years old and I have seen so many doctors; I have been to so many hospitals but I have never seen a doctor like Dr. Adadevoh. This lady! This lady!! Ebola has killed us; I don’t know why (breaks down in tears). This Ebola has taken away a great person o, a good human being. Oh! Oh!! I don’t know oooooo. This great woman. I don’t what to do. I just don’t know. O God, we cannot see you, we cannot see you to ask you why you took away this perfect woman. Why! O why, not other doctors? Why not someone else? Why must it be Adadevoh, why?
She has been my family doctor, treating everyone, even those that came to stay with us and she never forgot anyone. She asked after all her patients.
There is nothing too big for government to do in keeping her memories alive. Nothing too big. She fought to prevent Sawyer from infecting others with Ebola, She did her best for this country. Nothing is too much to use in remembering her, even if it is to name one of these big hospitals after her.
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