This article is an account of how Dr Ada Igonoh survived the Ebola Virus. She tells it by herself.
Dr Ada recounted this to Bill Gates and he shares it on his blog…
Once in a while, you read something that’s so compelling, you want to share it with everyone you can. Dr. Ada Igonoh’s story had that effect on me.
Dr. Igonoh is a physician in Lagos, Nigeria, where she helped care for Patrick Sawyer, the patient who introduced Ebola into Nigeria in July. After coming down with the deadly virus herself, she spent two harrowing weeks getting treatment in isolation wards.
When I met her at a conference in New Orleans last week, Dr. Igonoh handed me a written account of her experience. Even knowing she was going to be okay, I couldn’t stop reading—I had to know what happened next. Her optimism was inspiring. Her story also gave me a deeper appreciation for all the health workers who are heroically caring for patients and trying to stop this epidemic. And it is a good reminder of the way uncertainty reigns in the early days of an epidemic. The world’s response since then has been remarkable, and Nigeria has now been certified free of Ebola.
I want to thank Dr. Igonoh for her courage, and for agreeing to let me share her story here. It is well worth your time to read it. — Bill Gates
On the night of Sunday July 20th, 2014, Patrick Sawyer was wheeled into the emergency room of the First Consultants Medical Centre, Obalende, Lagos, with complaints of fever and body weakness. The male doctor on call admitted him as a case of malaria, and took a full history.
Knowing that Mr. Sawyer had recently arrived from Liberia, the doctor asked if he had been in contact with an Ebola patient in the last couple of weeks, and Mr. Sawyer denied any such contact. He also denied attending any funeral ceremony recently. Blood samples were taken for full blood count, malaria parasites, liver function test, and other baseline investigations. He was admitted into a private room and started on antimalarial drugs and analgesics. That night, the blood count result came back as normal and not indicative of infection.
