My Ebola story
Posted by admin | 10 years ago | 3,213 times
The number 5 is synonymous with death and I'm going to use the opportunity of the 5th day of this Challenge to tell about my encounter with ebola virus disease and how God delivered me from the jaws of death.
This story starts on August 5 when I picked up chatters in my in box about Justina Ejelonu being infected with the virus. She was a sister and friend, someone I have known from the University. I called her immediately I got the news and she confirmed the story to be true. Now we kicked in with approaches to save her life. The first was the #GiveThemExperimentalDrugs campaign which we championed. We also sought to know how we can alleviate her pain. Top on her list of demands was oxygen and through the support of my boss and friend John Okiyi Kalu that request was granted her. I headed to the IDH Center in Yaba where ebola patients were being kept to deliver the much needed oxygen so Justina can survive.
I called it luck when I got thru to Dennis, Justina's fiancee as it would facilitate the delivery so I can leave that environment. Before entering that dangerous environment, I had resolved among other things that I won't shake hands with anybody. But when I saw Dennis, I saw a man who had been battered and humilated due to the situation. He told me stories of how he was avoided by people. I thought it was too much for the young man. He didn't look sick and I knew what they said about the non-symptomatic not beinng contagious. So I shook hands with him while leaving. To encourage and support him for his ordeal. That handshake almost became my achilles heel.
I kept constant touch with Dennis even after Justina died. I wanted to know how he was fairing and how he was coping with the situation. We will talk and text each other many times in a day. Then that Saturday, he told me he had come down with the symptoms...excruciating pain, fever etc. My heart skipped a bit. Fear engulfed me. The once fearless Mazi, the one who was also known as Sir Trouble could no longer control his emotions. Just then fever came, my appetite flew out through the window, I was dazed. Death feeling took over me. I stayed awake those first 2 nights. My strength began to fail me. Suddenly I would tire easily after a short walk. Na so Mazi take die be dis?
I stayed in touch wit Dennis. The next day he told me his symptoms had disappeared. It was strange. Once someone was infected, he would be sickly until death or recovery. Dennis was sick just one day. So I thought maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him. Lagos govt people picked him up the next day and his test result came back positive for ebola. I sank into a new low. My wife had been crying after I told her I went to the IDH place. I wondered what she would do if she found out I had shook hands with someone who had thereafter tested positive. I suddenly went into shock. I developed an aversion for the word ebola. I could no longer watch any news channel for the fear the word will come up. Even facebook too. Dennis was moved to the main quarantine ward and I was waiting for my symptoms to progress before I reported myself to the ebola center.
To the glory of God, that episode ended and I did not go down with ebola and I am still in the land of the living. I praise the Lord who delivered me from that scourge. I doubt if my faith would have seen me through if I had contracted that deadly disease. Our God is a faithful God. He delivered me from the cluthes of death
Mazi Yako wrote from Lagos Nigeria.
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