The widow of the late Patrick Sawyer (who will unfortunately go down in history books as the man who brought the Ebola virus to Nigeria) has spoken up about the demise of her husband and why he embarked on his journey to Nigeria.
Mrs. Decontee Sawyer broke her silence on her Facebook wall. She said her late husband had traveled to Nigeria because he hoped to enjoy better medical care in the most populous black nation of the world as against the poor health sector in Liberia.
Here’s what she wrote:
“I write today, not simply because of Patrick, but because of the broken healthcare system in Liberia, and the government’s inability under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (and other past presidents) to fix it.”
“Good doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers aren’t given the support they need to save lives.
“Patrick went to Nigeria for help so that he could get properly diagnosed, and not misdiagnosed in Liberia. And if it came back that he did have Ebola, he trusted the Nigerian healthcare system a lot more than he trusted the Liberian’s.
“His action, as off as it was, was a desperate plea for help. Patrick didn’t want to die, and he thought his life would be saved in Nigeria.”
The mother of three also appealed to Nigerians to understand that her husband meant no harm by his journey to Nigeria.
“Patrick had a passion for life, and he wouldn’t have wanted his to end. “So, I bet anything that he was thinking, if I could only get to Nigeria, a way more developed country than Liberia, I would be able to get some help. How ironic!
“I’ve read reports in other papers about Patrick’s recklessness. I get where they’re coming from, and they certainly have the right to feel the way they do.
“However, as Patrick’s widow, I would like to shed some light on this from another perspective. One thing that only I, his wife, would know: I knew Patrick better than anybody else.
“He had told me many times in the past how much he didn’t trust the Liberian healthcare system. He would tell me about how a person would get checked in for one thing, and get misdiagnosed and get the wrong treatment as a result.
On top of that, Patrick was a clean freak, and told me how filthy a lot of the hospitals were.”
So far, over 1000 lives have been lost in West Africa to the Ebola virus.
