BY Chidi Chima
But for the insistence of the management of First Consultant Medical Centre, Lagos, Mr. Patrick Sawyer ─ the Liberian-American who brought the Ebola virus to Nigeria ─ would have forcefully discharged himself and travelled to Calabar, Cross River State, four days before his death.
Also, an official of the Liberian embassy in Nigeria reportedly called the hospital several times, putting pressure on them to discharge Sawyer because he had “an important meeting to attend in Calabar”.
“It got to a stage, the official started insulting us. All manner of insult and threatening language,” a senior member of the hospital staff told TheCable, revealing that they wondered if the allowance to be paid to Sawyer for attending the meeting was more important than his health.
Sawyer (pictured) would “definitely” have infected more Nigerians had the hospital not insisted on carrying out further checks on him, the source said.
He was initially tested for malaria and HIV, but both were negative.
Although he was in pains and “clearly not in good condition”, he told the management of the hospital to let him go to Calabar.
“He was a bit restless but we told him we needed to run other tests. It was in the process we discovered he had Ebola,” the source told TheCable.
Sawyer, a consultant with the Liberian ministry of finance, arrived Lagos on July 20 on his way to an ECOWAS event in Calabar when he collapsed and was taken to the hospital.
Reports are now suggesting that he knew he had contracted the virus before coming to Nigeria, judging by his “strange conduct” at the Monrovia airport said to have been caught on CCTV.
His sister had died from the virus and there are reports that he made contact with her.
The sister’s husband had fled his home out of fear of being infected.
Sawyer died on July 24 while one of the nurses who attended to him has also died from the virus, with five other persons ─ including a doctor ─ also infected.
He would have made contact with more Nigerians had he travelled to Calabar and the casualty figure would probably have been higher by now.
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