First
Consultant Hospital’s Chief Medical Director has revealed that despite
the hospital heroic work in stopping the spread of Ebolavirus in
Nigeria, they are not being appreciated.
CMD Dr Benjamin Ohiaeri
told The Tribune yesterday that his staff and their families still face
firsthand stigmatization even after being certified free of the Ebola
virus.
He said:
“Since re-opening, we have witnessed
firsthand what it means to be stigmatized. At a time when you would
think we would be appreciated for our professionalism in containing
Ebola, we are enduring a significant depletion in patient-turn up.
We
are down on numbers by a factor of about 90%. But for the generosity of
friends and family, Aledo Peterside, Tunde Ayeni, Diamond Bank, etc.,
this business would have collapsed. Even now, we are struggling to stay
afloat. It has been very tough indeed.”
“The loss of Dr Adadevoh,
Dr Abaniwo, Evelyn Uko and Ejelonu, four key members of our team, the
first two of who were the most senior of our medics and members of the
Hospital Executive Committee, has been hard.
They were
colleagues, they were family. We are talking of a lifetime of working as
a close team – as confidantes, as family. So, yes it’s been very tough.
As well as our fallen heroes, we have many of the survivors here.
Medics,
who placed their lives on the line to avoid Ebola spreading to the
general public; they suffered the trauma of threats to their lives and
the horror of rejection, in many cases, simply because they once had
Ebola.
The families of our people have suffered horrendous
victimisation too. Children of the dead hounded out of rented homes just
when they needed compassion; the husband of a sufferer thrown out of
his job simply because the employer learned of his wife’s condition. The
pain, the suffering, the horror goes on and on.
Still, our
people are back at work, doing what they do best – caring for the ill.
For the hospital, we are inching back to life. As you know, the place
was shut down for nearly three months while it was decontaminated by the
WHO. So, our business was essentially shut in all that time, though our
expenses, salaries, among others, continued to run” he said.
The
Ebola virus was introduced into the country by Patrick Sawyer, A
Liberian American who intentionally flew into Nigeria with the virus.
He was first admitted into First Consultant Hospital, where he was held down and not allowed to leave.
First Consultant Hospital lost some of their staff members to the cold hands of death including Dr Adadevoh.
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