Details have emerged that it is not only in Nigeria that late Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, has infected several health officials through the unguarded spread of the Ebola Virus Disease.
Sawyer was said to have also done the same in his original home country, Liberia.
He was said to have caused the infection of several health officials at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.
Among those that were infected as a result of what was described as the arrogance and denial of Sawyer was a Cameroonian who served as the Director of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital, Bro. Patrick Nshamze.
A former Administrative Services Officer of the Catholic Health Secretariat, Archdiocese of Monrovia, Moses Mendin, revealed these in his reaction to an article written by Sawyer’s wife, Decontee, defending her husband’s trip to Nigeria from Liberia, despite warning against embarking on the journey.
According to Mendin, Decontee did not speak from a point of knowledge because her article did not provide answers to some pertinent posers.
In the article, Decontee had said her husband must have traveled to Nigeria to seek better health facilities for the treatment of his ailment.
She equally abused the President of Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, for criticising her husband’s decision to travel to Nigeria despite the fact that he was aware of his status as a suspected Ebola patient.
Reacting to the article by Decontee, Mendin, a graduate of the Cuttington University Graduate School and University of Liberia, said it would have been better for her to have remained silent at this time.
Mendin accused Sawyer of arrogance and denial, the twin evil he said led to the infection of “several hospital workers at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Liberia and the outright conveying of the Ebola virus to Nigeria….”
He faulted the criticism of the Liberian health system by Decontee, saying it was the same system that nurtured both her and Sawyer.
He advised her to conduct proper investigation into the attitude of her husband both at St. Joseph’s hospital and in Nigeria that could have warranted President Goodluck Jonathan referring to him as a “madman”.
He said: “Decontee should go beyond mere talking and do thorough investigation about what transpired at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital that got Bro. Patrick Nshamze, a Cameroonian national serving as hospital director, infected, thereby affecting other missionaries and several other health workers.
“She should also go beyond and investigate her late husband’s attitude displayed in Nigeria that President Goodluck Jonathan referred to him as ‘one madman’.
“Let Decontee let sleeping dog lie and concentrate on her bereavement while the African nations strive to clean the mess he created.”
Mendin said it was such attitude that got Sawyer infected in the first place.
Below is the full text of the response of Mendin to Decontee’s article unedited:
My deepest sympathy to Decontee and the Sawyer family for the loss of Patrick. However, I would advice that Decontee remains silent at this time when the memories of her late husband’s arrogance and denial that has resulted to the infections and deaths of several hospital workers at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Liberia and the outright conveying of the Ebola virus to Nigeria is still fresh on the minds of several people. I do agree with Decontee that her husband has strong mistrust in the Liberian health care system, a system that perhaps nurtured both her and her husband as well as their parents. This is not the argument for I know little or nothing about their backgrounds and quite basic now to go researching. But truly it is because of this mistrust, denial, and arrogance that Patrick in the first place got infected by this virus and in the process infected several others. Decontee should go beyond mere talking and do thorough investigation about what transpired at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital that got Bro. Patrick Nshamze, a Cameroonian national serving as hospital director infected thereby affecting other missionaries and several other health workers. She should also go beyond and investigate her late husband’s attitude displayed in Nigeria that President Goodluck Johnattan referred to him as a “one madman”. Let Decontee let sleeping dog lie and concentrate on her bereavement while the African nations strive to clean the mess he created. May his soul rest in peace. My question is did Patrick tell Decontee about his infection since according to her he avoided contacts with people while at the Roberts International Airport indicating that he knew his status? Didn’t Decontee know that the “untrusted health care system” of Liberia did advice her late husband to go under 21 days of observation and he acted against this advice?
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