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. Find 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.
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