She emphasized, of course, that it would be better for patients to be in real hospitals with doctors and nurses in protective gear — it’s just that those things aren’t available to many West Africans.
No one knows that better than Fatu.
Her Ebola nightmare started July 27, when her father, Moses, had a spike in blood pressure. She took him to a hospital in their home city of Kakata.
A bed was free because a patient had just passed away. What no one realized at the time was that the patient had died of Ebola.
Moses, 52, developed a fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Then the hospital closed down because nurses started dying of Ebola.
Fatu took her father to Monrovia, the capital city, about a 90-minute drive via difficult roads. Three hospitals turned him away because they were full.
She took him back to another hospital in Kakata. They said he had typhoid fever and did little for him, so Fatu took him home, where he infected three other family members: Fatu’s mother, Victoria, 57; Fatu’s sister, Vivian, 28, and their 14-year-old cousin who was living with them, Alfred Winnie.
While operating her one-woman Ebola hospital for two weeks, Fatu consulted with their family doctor, who would talk to her on the phone, but wouldn’t come to the house. She gave them medicines she obtained from the local clinic and fluids through intravenous lines that she started.
At times, her patients’ blood pressure plummeted so low she feared they would die.
“I cried many times,” she said. “I said ‘God, you want to tell me I’m going to lose my entire family?’ “
But her father, mother, and sister rallied and were well on their way to recovery when space became available at JFK Medical Center on August 17. Alfred never recovered, though, and passed away at the hospital the next day.
“I’m very, very proud,” her father said. “She saved my life through the almighty God.”
Now he’s working to find a scholarship for Fatu so she can finish her final year of nursing school. He has no doubt his daughter will go on to save many more people during her life.
“I’m sure she’ll be a great giant of Liberia,” he said.
CNN’s John Bonifield, Orlando Ruiz, and Orlind Cooper contributed to this story.
One Woman Treats Ebola, Walks Away Healthy And Saves Family was originally published on blackdoctor.org
