It’s so sad that Justina died, it was her first day at work! Dennis Akagha, the fiance of Justina
Ejelonu, the First Consultant Hospital nurse who died after being infected with the deadly Ebola
virus by Liberian Patrick Sawyer, in this exclusive interview with Vanguard spoke about how his
late fiancee contracted the deadly disease, how she lost their unborn child while battling with Ebola,
and also revealed that Justina had just landed the job at the hospital and met Sawyer on her first
day there. He also spoke on how he got infected with the virus and how he finally got discharged.
From the in-depth interview below….

On his relationship with the late Justina, Dennis said;
“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. On that first day which was a Monday, she was having
some pregnancy symptoms, but I just encouraged her to go because it was her first day at work.
Sawyer was her first patient. The next day, Tuesday, she didn’t work on Sawyer. Wednesday and
Thursday, she was off. Then on Friday, Patrick Sawyer died. They didn’t know he had Ebola, it was
three days later that they realized it was Ebola” he said

On how he found out she had contracted the deadly virus, he said
“It was after Sawyer died that she told me she nursed him but that she was on gloves. She even
thanked God that she didn’t have direct contact with him. The fever continued and we thought it
was just pregnancy symptoms and even when she went to her hospital, they confirmed the same
thing. She took drugs and ran tests, yet it persisted. At night, she was usually cold and feverish
and her body temperature was usually very high. At a point, I began to suspect that she had
contacted the virus. I did some research on the disease and realised that she was having similar
symptoms. On the 14th of August, it became serious, she started stooling and vomiting. I had to
clean up everything. All of a sudden, she started bleeding and she started crying that she had lost
the pregnancy. I had to call her relatives and other people. The bleeding persisted and I had to
clean up everything. Initially I was not wearing gloves because I felt I had already been exposed to
the virus. But later I cautioned myself and started wearing nylon on my hands. But I couldn’t stay
away from her. I kept consoling her. Even when I took her to the hospital, she wanted to hold me
and I told her to also consider my safety. She managed to hold herself and was able to find her
way out in a pool of her blood. We chartered a taxi to the hospital, but first, I took her to First
Consultant Hospital because I felt they should know more. When we got there, I was directed to
IGH, Yaba. I told the taxi driver to take us there. The driver wasn’t even aware of what was going
on as he took us to Yaba. Justina was on the floor for 30 minutes before she was attended to. She
was screaming that she was going to die. She was seriously bleeding, she had to come out of the
taxi and lay on the floor. I ran around, trying to get doctors to attend to her. After everything, they
took her in, took her blood samples and the following day, the result came out that it was Ebola.
They washed the taxi with chlorine and also bathed the taxi driver and I with chlorine spray. At that
point, the taxi driver knew what was going on, he couldn’t even take me home because he was so
scared. I had to look for somewhere to pass the night in the hospital. Early the next morning, I left
the Hospital. The taxi driver is alive today, nothing happened to him. We have been checking on
him and the last time we spoke he told me, he was fine” he said.

On what happened after he was exposed to the virus, Dennis said;
“14 days after I was exposed to Ebola, my temperature rose from the usual 35.2 degrees
centigrade to 37.2. The Lagos State government gave me a thermometer the day I dropped Justina
off at the centre. It took them two straight weeks to visit my home and to disinfect it. Before they
came, I had already done the much I could do. I used bleach and detergent to clean the whole
house, furniture and clothes inclusive. We should be reminded and educated that a healthy person
with Ebola virus cannot get anybody infected, except if the person is sick and totally down with the
virus like what happened to Sawyer and to my late wife-to-be, Justina. I contacted the virus
because Justina was very sick and I was taking care of her without any appropriate protection.
When we knew what we were dealing with it was almost too late for me as I had already contacted
the virus” he said.

On what was done for him after his visit to the Isolation centre, Dennis said
“The Lagos State government sent health professionals to check on me regularly to know how l
was doing or if l had the signs of the virus manifesting. So they used to come around to check on
me. At some point they created scenes with their visits. I was embarrassed and I was stigmatized.
I complained severely to them that I didn’t like what they were doing. Then, one Saturday they
visited again, I complained about the pains I was beginning to experience; excruciating pains
around my waist. I started praying and asking people to pray for me. Before this time, I believed in
the Holy Communion, so I usually take it daily and do feet washing. I was going to the hospital
daily to see late Justina. Initially, I was seeing her through the window and she would say I should
take her out of the hospital. She complained of lack of care. Perhaps, Justina would have survived
the virus, if not for the state she was in. Her immune system was down because she was pregnant.
Along the line, she had a miscarriage and lost the baby due to the Ebola virus disease. The
doctors, who were supposed to do an evacuation on her couldn’t do it because they claimed that
an evacuation was too risky as she was heavily infected and may pass on the virus to another
person. Since nothing was done even after the bleeding had stopped, it led to more complications
for her because the already dead foetus somehow got rotten in the womb and started a damaging
process which led to further complication. Meanwhile, she was still stooling and vomiting and since
nobody could dare to touch her, she was left on top of her excretions even when she couldn’t do
much for herself due to her weak state. She was given her incisions and other drugs. I believe if
some people survived Justina should have been one of them. At a point, I wished I was a doctor
myself; I would have taken the risk of doing the evacuation because it really affected her”.

On the last day he say his late fiancee, Dennis said
“The last day I saw her, I had to go inside the ward because she was so unkempt as nobody
attended to her. At that time, the quarantined patients were in the former facility where there was
no water and she had messed up herself again. I had to look for water to clean her up, change her
pampers and arrange her bedding. Since I was aware of what I was dealing with, I got myself
protected while cleaning up the place. I made sure she looked better than when I saw her. Justina
was shivering the last day I saw her, one side of her stomach was already swollen, and her legs
were also swollen. I prayed for her.At a point, she needed oxygen and the hospital couldn’t provide
it. Her friends had to provide it. That was the last day I saw her. On Sunday Morning, I called her
line like I usually did before visiting her, but she didn’t pick her calls. When I got to the hospital, I
was told that she was dead”.

Asked if late Justina was taking his calls while she was at the Isolation center, Dennis said;
“Yes, in fact she called me that last day and I knew she was going to give up, because she was
saying some funny things. She said I should tell my people to go and meet her father so as to
finalize our marriage plans, that she’s leaving that place.
Asked if he was not scared that he would die form the illness seeing that his Fiancees health was
deteriorating, Dennis said;
“I personally don’t believe in taking medications. I had the mentality that I wasn’t sick. I told the
government what I was experiencing. On the day they came to pick me up for treatment, all of a
sudden, my temperature went back to normal. The shivering and pains were all gone. So they
decided that they would be checking on me. But it got to a point people stopped selling things to
me. It was as if the government got a report that I shouldn’t be around. So, they came and said I
should go with them that they wanted to take my blood sample. I went with them and they took my
blood sample, I was kept in a ward known as the ‘suspected ward. The result came out and it was
positive. I was then taken to a confined ward. One of the doctors from UNICEF, a white lady told
me that they were having issues with the results and that they would have to re-run the tests.
They did the tests again and it was still positive. I told them that it wasn’t my result and that I was
healthy. I was even doing my usual exercises (press-ups) every morning. I kept telling them that I
wasn’t sick. They took my blood sample the third time. That night, they told me that I tested
negative in the last result and that I don’t have any reason to remain there. That was how I was
discharged” he said

Speaking on what was hapening to his job as he was under isolation, Dennis said;
“I was a marketer in an oil and gas company. I worked on commission basis, but at a point, I
realized that people were not calling me and when I called they won’t pick my calls. Even the
person that I report directly refused to pick my calls and also refused to associate with me.
Justina and I just got our jobs, she got hers at First Consultant Hospital and I got mine as a
marketer with the oil and gas company.
On whether the government or First Consultant Hospital owes late Justina’s family some form of
compensations, Dennis said;
“Although, no amount of money they give to the family will bring her back I think the government
owes Justina’s family a lot because she died trying to save a situation. Justina died in active
service as her death wasn’t natural”.

On how his status changed from postive to negative, Dennis said
“I was reading a book on healing and taking of the Holy Communion. So I learnt to take Holy
Communion morning, afternoon and night. I also engaged myself in feet-washing every day before
going to bed. The Almighty God saved me; the Holy Spirit healed me. It wasn’t as though l didn’t
fall sick as l had direct contact with Justina but the Almighty God healed me. When I was
discharged, I got to my house on Saturday evening and spent two hours the next day, Sunday,
thanking God on my own. I didn’t go to church or anywhere because of the already established
stigma but today I can confidently attend church activities because I guess they all know I’m free
now. I know my faith and belief healed me. God also worked for me apart from the fact that my
immune system is also working. I believe I got healed also because friends prayed for me” he said.

http://www.nigerianwedding.net/how-i-lost-my-fiancee-unborn-baby-to-ebola-read-dennis-akaghas-interview/

2 sad

What a story,, Ebola devil disease.

God have mercy