Ebola is Real

In the morning I went into the market in Lunsar center.  The same blaring radio was on and I wondered if the locals have grown so used to it, they are just background noises.  Someone called me by name and when I turned I saw a face with a wide smile and she asked if I was shopping.  I said yes and would like to buy some cucumbers.  She then asked me if I remembered her name.  “What is my name?” has been an on-going game here.  The nationals often query me whether I remember their names. It is hard enough for me to remember everyone’s faces and their names but I have done quite well.  I told her that her name was Aminata and she broke into the happiest and widest grin.  She helped me to buy some cucumbers.  I went into the crowded market and picked up some lappas (wrappers) and then a tin of sardines.  While waiting for the driver to come to pick me up, several persons greeted me, pronouncing my name accurately.

Abu Bakar came to pick me up.  He has been instrumental in teaching me some Temne.  He has asked me whether I went to the market to interact with people and expresses his sentiments that many expats keep to themselves, tight-lipped and do not interact.  He asked me what I would miss most when I leave Sierra Leone.  I answered, “The people.”  As I said that a man came right into the path of the cruiser barely looking at where he was going.  Abu Bakar laughed and said people paid little attention on the road.  Life in Sierra Leone is hard and people are poor and hungry, always searching for food and employment.  Ebola does not make it any easier. 

He blamed Ebola for his wife’s death a month ago.  After giving birth to their third child, she began to bleed but there was no one who could help her for fear of getting Ebola as it is largely believed that infected pregnant women have a high viral burden.  His wife did not have Ebola but no one dared touched her.  Abu Bakar said she fell and died. As he held her in his arms, he wondered whether this would happen if there were no outbreak of Ebola.  We reached the ETC when he finished telling me his story.  He was so grief-stricken that he could hardly contain himself.  He covered the pain on his face with his hands; no tears flowed from his eyes.  I knew we were not to touch skin but I could not help but reached over to touch his shoulder gently.  Another vehicle with a fellow driver drove from the opposite direction.  Abu Bakar composed himself and nodded in acknowledgement.

I had the afternoon shift with 11 patients signed out to two doctors, a luxury compared to yesterday when I worked alone.  As the death marching order of Ebola continued, Emmanuel Senior and Rosemarie passed away, unable to stem the surging tide of death.  Ishmael seemed a little better, we urged mom to encourage him to eat.  Mom lost her grandfather, Emmanuel Senior this morning.  I asked her how she was coping.  She said when her baby died she was quite ill herself and she felt “mixed and confused feelings inside” and when her 2-year-old died two days ago, she cried inside her heart.  She has also recently lost her husband to Ebola.  At age 22, she has 2 children left, a 7-year-old in Freetown and Ishmael in the ETC with her.  So much tragedy in such a short period and at such a young age! 

Her young caretaker then told us a similarly tragic story.  In October when many Sierra Leoneans still did not believe that Ebola was real, her husband died of Ebola while in Port Loko Hospital and he bled all over.  When she saw all that blood she became convinced that Ebola was real.  She and three of her children became sick and all perished except her and now she is a caretaker for other Ebola patients in the ETC. She also lost her mother.  

The 4 year-old Abu cried all afternoon for his papa who brought him to the ETC 3 days ago and he left him here.  Abu cried until he was so tired that he finally fell asleep on the lap of his caretaker.  The psychosocial person would get in touch with his father to pay him a visit.

RK with her 10-week pregnancy is still waiting for a negative Ebola test.  She has been advised to terminate her pregnancy and arrangement has been made for her to be transferred to an MSF facility.

It is so ironic to think that when Ebola was rampant here in Sierra Leone last fall, many Sierra Leoneans did not believe that Ebola is real and it kills.  When Ebola reached the shore of America, in the person of Mr. Duncan who later infected two more persons, many panicked that Ebola would spread like wild fire and that drastic measures should be imposed including quarantining the asymptomatic returning volunteers for 21 days and preventing any incoming flights from West Africa from landing in the US!