According to reports by FrontPage Africa, the last acts of Patrick Sawyer, the Ebola infected Liberian who died in Lagos, might have resulted in the transfer of the virus to innocent health workers, now suffering from the virus.
Disturbing reports have it that the infected Liberian went into a rage when hospital workers informed him of the diagnosis.
Mr. Sawyer died on July 25th in Lagos State.
Mr. Sawyer is said to have had an "indiscipline" encounter with nurses and health workers at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende where he was being treated.
According to the report, Mr. Sawyer was asked if he had come into contact with anyone who had the virus but he answered in the negative.
Doctors at the hospital decided to test him anyway and when they told him he had Ebola, he allegedly went into a rage and urinated on the health workers attending to him.
"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 to control 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.”
It was learnt that Sawyer exhibited similar indiscipline behaviour 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.
As one of the nurses who treated Sawyer has died in Nigeria, fears are currently being fanned in the country with some people suggesting that he might have knowingly spread the disease.
The Nigerian Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu has confirmed 7 cases of the disease and has assured that urgent measures are being put in place to ensure that the virus does not spread further.
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