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 today, TMZ
Liberia Magazine http://
www.mytmzliberia.net/) 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.

Now, look at what he has caused. Even a Professor of medicine that we know has bathed with salt water on 8/8/14

'In search of a better healthcare in Nigeria'
Wrong number location