When most Nigerians hear about the First Consultant Hospital Obalende,what comes to mind is the fact that it was the place the dreaded Ebola virus was first reported and that was when we heard about late Liberian,Patrick Sawyer who ‘imported’ Ebola into Nigeria.
We also remember the hero, Dr Adadevoh the consultant who made sure Patrick Sawyer didn’t escape from the hospital and spread the disease. Unfortunately she contacted the disease from him and died(may her beautiful soul continue to rest in peace).
Now it wasn’t only Dr Ameyo Adadevoh that died from the disease in that hospital, some nurses also died but to the glory of God another doctor, Ada Igonoh who also contacted the disease SURVIVED and remains a living TESTIMONY till today.
I came across her story earlier this week, it is a very long narration but I have decided to edit it to make it easier to read for those that would usually not be patient enough to read the lengthy story.
Often as children of God it is so easy to talk about faith when things are going smoothly but when you actually go through the valley of the shadow of death what goes through your mind or comes out of your mouth?
Dr Ada Igonoh was one of the doctors that treated Patrick Sawyer and she was actually the one who certified him dead when she found him slumped in the bathroom and examined him. By now it had been confirmed that he died from and had one of the worst types,the ‘Zaire Strain’. After his death, officials from the World Health organization,WHO, gave them a chart as they were now under a 21 day surveillance to be sure they hadn’t caught the disease.
At that time, Dr Igonoh was at her parents house for some time out and soon after started to experience joint and muscle aches and a sore throat although her temperature was still normal. A few days later,her temperature was now very high,38.7c and her sore throat was worse,she called the WHO officials who came and took her blood sample. Later that day she started stooling and vomiting and the WHO officials came to take her with an ambulance.
She left the house just dressed in a top and jeans with her iPad and phones in her bag but noticed that the officials that had been friendly with her prior to this now seemed to avoid contact with her and shared no pleasantries. She was taken to the hospital where she was told she has Ebola and she immediately placed a call to her mum saying, “Mummy, they said I have Ebola, but don’t worry, I will survive it. Please, go and lock my room now; don’t let anyone inside and don’t touch anything.”
She said the female ward she was taken to looked like an abandoned building and one of the ward maids from her hospital was already there looking very sick and the room smelled of faeces and vomit. A white doctor, Dr David fully wearing his protective suit came in to see her with bottles of water and ORS, the oral fluid therapy which he said she had to take at least 4.5 litres daily to replace fluids lost in stooling and vomiting.
By the next day, she had rashes on her skin and sores all over her mouth but she still remained determined that Ebola will not beat her and she was taking the ORS faithfully even while stooling.
Dr Ada said every morning she meditated on Psalm 91 while drinking the ORS fluid like no man’s business. Her pastor always called morning and night and they would pray together. She also started listening to CDs of messages on faith and healing and taking Holy Communion packs through her husband who could only look at her through the window.
During this ordeal, she was also always researching about the disease via her iPad to get all the information on Ebola to her advantage. Her research helped because she read about how the virus replicates fast destroying blood cells and how if one’s immune system is strong enough the patient is likely to survive and she claimesd this and was confessing to herself that she is a survivor. By now Dr Ada was wearing adult diapers because the diarrhea was now too frequent and she couldn’t be running to the toilet all the time as she was now weak.
Her faith was really being tested alongside this indignity of wearing pampers but it was a major fight for life and she was determined to win it with God by her side. Some of her male colleagues were also admitted alongside Nurse Justina who later died. Despite this, she kept encouraging herself and five days after she was admitted, the vomiting stopped. A day after that, the diarrhea ceased. She then graduated from drinking only the ORS fluid to eating only bananas, to drinking pap and then bland foods.
She started daily Bible study with the other two female patients and they would encourage one another to stay positive in their outlook even though in the natural it was grim and very depressing. On her 10th day in the ward, the doctors noted that she had stopped vomiting and stooling and was no longer running a fever, they then took her blood sample to test if the virus had cleared from her system. Two days later, on Saturday the 16th of August, the W.H.O doctors came with some papers and told her the result of her blood test was NEGATIVE for Ebola virus!!
Exactly 14 days after admitting her, Dr Ada Igonoh was free from Ebola and allowed to go home although she wasn’t allowed to leave the ward with anything she came with including her iPad, phones, cd player and even the Christian tapes she had been listening to. She went for a chlorine bath, which was necessary to disinfect her skin from head to toe and she said it felt like being baptized into a new life.
Dr Ada gave this testimony to encourage people that miracles still exist. None of them in that isolation ward was given any experimental drugs or so-called immune boosters. Holding on to her faith, praying incessantly,consuming her ORS, researching on the disease and encouraging herself with healing and faith messages, she was able to be part of the few survivors of Ebola disease.
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