Decontee Sawyer (Photo Credit: Decontee Sawyer’s Facebook
The
widow of late Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian who brought Ebola into
Nigeria, has defended her husband’s decision to travel to Africa’s most
populous country, saying he did so in desperate search for a country
with better healthcare system than his own country.
In an article
published earlier yesterday, TMZ Liberia Magazine quoted Decontee
Sawyer, who is a radio host in New York, as explaining that Mr. Sawyer
had no trust in the healthcare system in Liberia and had possibly headed
to Nigeria with the hope of receiving better treatment for his ailment.
Mrs. Sawyer shared her thoughts on her Facebook profile from which TMZ Liberia sourced it for publication.
“I’ve
read other reports in other papers (not the New York Times) about
Patrick’s “recklessness.” I get where they’re coming from, and they
certainly have the right to feel the way they do. However, as Patrick’s
widow, I would like to shed some light on this from another perspective.
One that only I, his wife, would know,” she wrote.
“I knew
Patrick better than anybody else (including himself). He had told me
many times in the past how much he didn’t trust the Liberian healthcare
system. He would tell me about how a person would get checked in for one
thing, and get misdiagnosed and get the wrong treatment as a result. On
top of that, Patrick was a clean freak, and told me how filthy a lot of
the hospitals were.
“He didn’t tell me this, but I know in my
heart of hearts that Patrick was determined to get to Nigeria by all
means because he felt that Nigeria would be a place of refuge. He has
expressed to me many times in the past that he felt passionately about
helping to be a part of strengthening Liberia’s healthcare system, but
he knew it wasn’t there yet, and he wouldn’t want to take a chance with
his life because a lot of people depended on him… Patrick had a passion
for life, and he wouldn’t have wanted his to end. So, I bet anything
that he was thinking, if I could only get to Nigeria, a way more
developed country than Liberia, I would be able to get some help. How
ironic.”
Many Nigerians, and even Liberians, condemned Mr Sawyer
for traveling to Nigeria despite knowing that he was carrying Ebola
virus before embarking on the trip. Some Nigerians on social media have
described him as a “biological terrorist” arguing that he came into the
country deliberately to spread the disease.
On Monday in Abuja,
President Goodluck Jonathan described Mr Sawyer’s decision to travel to
Nigeria as pure “madness” and “craziness.”
“Sawyer that brought
this Ebola to Nigeria; his sister died of Ebola. And he started acting
somehow, his country asked him not to leave the country, let them
observe him, but the crazy man decided to leave and found his way here,”
President Jonathan said.
In her post, Mrs. Sawyer wrote that the
fact that her husband avoided contact with others at the James Sprigg
Payne’s Airport in Monrovia as revealed by airport CCTV footage proved
he didn’t set out to infect others with the disease and perhaps his
actions were that of a dying man in desperate search for help.
“It
has been reported that Patrick avoided physical contact with everyone
he came across during his trip from Liberia to Nigeria. When he got to
Nigeria, he turned himself in letting them know that he had just flown
in from Liberia.
“Patrick went to Nigeria for help so that he can
get properly diagnosed, and not misdiagnosed in Liberia. And if it came
back that he did have Ebola, he trusted the Nigerian healthcare system a
lot more than he trusted the Liberian’s. His action, as off as it was,
was a desperate plea for help. Patrick didn’t want to die, and he
thought his life would be saved in Nigeria.”
Mrs. Sawyer then
took a swipe at the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who said
Mr Sawyer was indiscipline and disrespectful for failing to heed medical
advise not to travel.
Mrs Sawyer said if President
Johnson-Sirleaf had fixed the healthcare system in Liberia, her husband
would not have left in search of treatment elsewhere.
“I write
today, not simply because of Patrick, but because of the broken
healthcare system in the Liberia, and the government’s inability under
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (and other past Presidents) to fix it.
Good doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers aren’t given the
support they need to save lives.
“President Sirleaf went on CNN
News throwing stones at Patrick, a man who can no longer defend himself,
a man who worked tirelessly for Liberia. She should be ashamed of
herself. I use to admire this woman, and was excited and proud of her
accomplishment as the first woman President in the entire continent of
Africa. She will always own that. We will always own that. It can’t be
taken away from her. It’s something to be proud of. But this woman has
failed her country,” she wrote.
Nigeria was free of Ebola until July 20 when Mr. Sawyer arrived.
He became terribly ill on his flight and was rushed to the First Consultant Hospital Obalende, Lagos, where he died on July 24.
Nigeria’s
Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said on Monday that although the
Liberian government has apologized for the incidence, it was pertinent
to note that Nigeria was free of Ebola Virus until its importation by
the Liberian-American.
Mr. Sawyer’s action, he said, has placed unnecessary stress on Nigeria’s health system.
Since
Mr. Sawyer’s death in a Lagos hospital, two other persons who had
contact with him have died of the virus. At least eight others have also
tested positive to the infection and have been quarantined at a Lagos
hospital.
President Goodluck Jonathan has since declared a
national emergency on the disease while the federal health ministry in
conjunction with health ministries in the 36 states are working to
prevent the spread of the virus, which has killed over 1,000 people in
Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
