Late
Patrick Sawyer’s widow, has revealed why her husband visited Nigeria
knowing full well that he had been infected with the deadly Ebola virus.
She
explained hat her husband’s decision to travel to Nigeria, was because
of his desperate search for a country with better healthcare system.
Decontee
Sawyer, who is a radio host in New York, explained that Mr. Sawyer had
no trust in the healthcare system in Liberia and had headed to Nigeria
with the hope of receiving better treatment for his ailment.
Sharing
her thoughts on her Facebook profile, she wrote “I’ve read other
reports in other papers (not the New York Times) 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 that only
I, his wife, would know,”
“I knew Patrick better than anybody
else (including himself). 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.
“He
didn’t tell me this, but I know in my heart of hearts that Patrick was
determined to get to Nigeria by all means because he felt that Nigeria
would be a place of refuge. He has expressed to me many times in the
past that he felt passionately about helping to be a part of
strengthening Liberia’s healthcare system, but he knew it wasn’t there
yet, and he wouldn’t want to take a chance with his life because a lot
of people depended on him…Patrick had a passion for life, and he
wouldn’t have wanted his life to end. So, I bet anything that he was
thinking, if I could only get to Nigeria, more developed country than
Liberia, I would be able to get some help. How ironic.”
On Monday in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan described Mr Sawyer’s decision to travel to Nigeria in harsh words.
“Sawyer
that brought this Ebola to Nigeria; his sister died of Ebola”, he said.
“And he started acting somehow, his country asked him not to leave the
country, let them observe him, but the crazy man decided to leave and
found his way here.”
But in her post, Mrs. Sawyer wrote that the
fact that her husband avoided contact with others at the James Sprigg
Payne’s Airport in Monrovia as revealed by airport CCTV footage proved
he didn’t set out to infect others with the disease and perhaps his
actions were that of a dying man in desperate search for help.
“It
has been reported that Patrick avoided physical contact with everyone
he came across during his trip from Liberia to Nigeria. When he got to
Nigeria, he turned himself in letting them know that he had just flown
in from Liberia.
“Patrick went to Nigeria for help so that he can
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.”
Mrs. Sawyer further
criticized the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, comment that
Mr Sawyer was indiscipline and disrespectful for failing to heed medical
advise not to travel.
She insisted that if President
Johnson-Sirleaf had fixed the healthcare system in Liberia, her husband
would not have left in search of treatment elsewhere.
“I write
today, not simply because of Patrick, but because of the broken
healthcare system in the 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.
“President Sirleaf went on CNN
News throwing stones at Patrick, a man who can no longer defend himself,
a man who worked tirelessly for Liberia. She should be ashamed of
herself. I use to admire this woman, and was excited and proud of her
accomplishment as the first woman President in the entire continent of
Africa. She will always own that. We will always own that. It can’t be
taken away from her. It’s something to be proud of. But this woman has
failed her country”, she concluded.
