“Unclean, unclean, make way for the leper!”

Yesterday Sullieu left the ETC Ebola-free, I missed the celebration.  Two others, Abdul and Adamssay left the Suspected Ward having not had an Ebola infection.  Sullieu has no caretaker as his relative Gabriel is still in the ETC, so he would be held at a safe place for the moment.

This morning we have five patients, four of whom are from the same family; Martha, Kadiatu, Doria and Fatmata K.  The only other patient in the Suspected Ward is Kadie who suffered a miscarriage and her first Ebola test is negative.  She, however, did not know that she was pregnant.

Kadiatu, Fatmata K’s mother, has been weak and sick with diarrhea while her grandmother Martha has a fever and fortunately has not had much “wet symptoms”; she reports feeling stronger today.  Kadiatu who has a disabled right leg contrives to use the bucket by half sitting on her bed; in the process she spills her diarrheal stool on the cement floor.   Both she and Martha, however, did not want to have Fatmata K visit with them this morning when she was brought to their bedside.  Kadiatu, Fatmata K’s mother just shook her head and waved her away.  She received no hugs or any words of endearment.  When the caretaker turned to her grandmother, she too shook her head and did not reach out to poor Fatmata K.  Fatmata K was carried away by her caretaker with tearless sad crying eyes and a mouth open with a voiceless, silent cry.  I could perfectly understand the predicament of her mother and grandmother; they are too ill to want company.  She would be a handful for either of them at this time.  However even a tender embrace and some loving words would have gone a long way.

Fatmata K has not been a picture of health, still refusing to eat but has been able to be coaxed to drink a little ORS.  Her breathing is a little rapid with mild upper abdominal retractions and when she is upset she also shows nasal flaring, all signs of her having some difficulty breathing.   

Two more patients were admitted, both of them are related to the four patients in the Confirmed Ward: 29-year-old Mohamed and 10-year-old Yaema.  Yaema is admitted to the Probable Ward because he vomited in the ambulance.  These patients were triaged while the medical team was still rounding in the ETC.

Around noon, Mayeni, a 38-year-old woman walked up to one of the gates having been sick for three days despite being seen three days ago at the Lunsar Community Clinic.  According to her she has no Ebola contact or contact with a dead person but has a myriad of symptoms which buy her an admission into the Suspected Ward.  I walked the long gravel path to question her with Fatu, my Temne translator.  We found a diminutive woman squatting by the iron gate with her wrapper covering her head shading her body from the fierce sun.  When we asked her for a contact number, she reached out from under her a small brown bag and fumbled in it and handed a piece of folded paper with a number written on it.  

Later a nurse in partial PPE walked with her on the long gravel path outside of the ETC to the ward, followed by a sprayer who sprayed the path taken by her with chlorine.  Seeing this parade of three strangely clad people taking this long laborious walk under the hot sun reminded me of the leper who walked into the city seeking healing from Jesus, all the while he was obligated to cry out to the crowd, ”Unclean, unclean, make way for the leper.”

Shortly after, a woman brought in a sick 6-month old baby by the same gate but sadly the baby died before admission.

As we were handing over, there was news of possibly another 10 more patients to be brought in from the Marampa Chiefdom, relatives of the four confirmed patients in the ETC.  If this were really true our dribs and drabs admission would now become a downpour.