Justina Ejelonu was one of the nurses that attended to Nigeria's Ebola Index case the late Patrick Sawyer. Her Fiance Dennis Akagha narrates how it all started,her last painful days and how he survived after he had been infected in this Vanguard Interview..
Excerpts
"He and his wife-to-be had lofty dreams of living fulfilled lives and raising wonderful children together. The fiance was two months pregnant and their traditional marriage had been fixed for October.
His fiancee, a graduate nurse, had just secured a job at First Consultant Hospital, Lagos. He too also just got a marketing job with an oil and gas company. She was reluctant to go to work on the first day she was expected to resume on account of ‘morning sickness’ (pregnancy symptoms) and he encouraged her.
She did! Lo and behold, her first duty and first patient to nurse on her first day at work was the late Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American, who brought the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) to Nigeria. And that decision put a full stop to the lofty dreams of a promising family. Welcome to the world of Mr. Dennis Akagha, the husband-to-be of late Miss Justina
His thoughts on Ebola and late Justina
The truth is that Justina and I were not legally married, we were planning for our traditional marriage in October and she just got this job. She was a qualified graduate nurse and got the job at the First Consultant Hospital in Lagos. She resumed duty at the hospital on the 21st of July, while Patrick Sawyer was admitted at the hospital on the 20th.
He was her first patient. She was one of the nurses that nursed him. She was pregnant and so her immune system was weak, which made it easy for her to contract the disease.
More when you continue..