LATEST UPDATE:
Why Patrick Sawyer should be demonisedWe are often told not to speak ill of the dead. Well, not in all cases. Despite the wide application of the cultural convention that says we should speak good things about the dead, in practice, that particular etiquette is not usually extended to all deceased people. Evil men and women, who lose their lives are not accorded that respect. Rather than uphold that cultural protocol, people sneer at some categories of the dead, vilify their character and speak in disgust about the iniquitous lives they lived.
It is in this context that I would argue that Nigerians are justified to be angry with the pig-headed Liberian-American man, known as Patrick Sawyer, who brought with him into Nigeria the Ebola virus with the clear intention of infecting as many people as he could interact with. Sawyer may have died but the Ebola virus he implanted in our society is still spreading and the number of victims is still rising. Why would anyone speak well of such a narrow-minded, silly, and narcissistic man?
Those who defend Sawyer say what he did was no different from HIV positive people, who deliberatively infect other people with the virus, on the ground that if they must die from the human immuno-deficiency virus, other people deserve to die from the same ailment too. This argument is neither logical nor analogous. I would argue as follows.
On a platform of intent, you could say Sawyer’s despicable conduct could be likened to what HIV people do when they go out on purpose to infect other people without letting their victims know of their HIV status. However, on another platform, the two viruses are clearly different. Ebola virus that Sawyer brought into Nigeria has no known cure. Medical science is struggling to produce a certified medicament to be used to treat people infected with Ebola virus.
We cannot say the same about HIV. There are now antiretroviral medications that are used to manage, treat, and prolong the lives of people living with the virus. While antiretroviral drugs do not cure people with HIV, the drugs are effective in prolonging lives by stopping people with HIV from falling sick for a long time. This is the difference. And this is why Ebola virus with no cure is more lethal than HIV.
So, when Sawyer refused to be isolated or prevented from interacting with people in Liberia and he travelled to Nigeria with the virus embedded in his system despite prior knowledge of his fragile health condition, you could say he wanted to inflict maximum pain on us all by deliberately spreading the virus.
Ebola is causing panic in the public and for a very good reason. Not only is there no cure, it is also highly infectious. Those who were infected and survived the disease relied mostly on the strength of their immune system to resist the disease rather than the potency of whatever drugs they took to treat the virus.
It is against this background that Sawyer should be demonised by Nigerians for knowingly bringing the disease into the country. Sawyer fell ill soon after arriving Nigeria and was promptly taken to a Lagos hospital for diagnosis of his condition. He concealed from medical officials at the hospital the fact that he was suffering from the Ebola virus.
It is unthinkable that a man of his age and social status would suppress vital information about the cause of his declining health. Because he failed to disclose that he was infected with the Ebola virus, the medical staff treating him in the Lagos hospital did not take extraordinary precautions to quarantine him and avoid close contact with the patient.
Sawyer knew he was badly affected by the Ebola virus. He knew he was likely to die and yet he did not mention to medical officials in the hospital that he was carrying the virus. It is reasonable to hold Sawyer (even after his death) and his family directly responsible for causing the deaths of two nurses, who came into contact with him at the Lagos hospital where he was being treated before he died. Sawyer must also be held responsible for the death of Dr. Stella Adadevoh, the consultant physician, who came into close contact while treating him in the hospital. How callous can a man be?
Sawyer was a coward, who engaged in an extraordinarily unconscionable act. He was terminally ill and he didn’t want to die alone. That’s why he concealed from everyone the nature of his ailment. He knew the condition of his health was irreparable but he kept that information close to his chest. In the end, he caused the death of the consultant physician and two nurses in the hospital who all contracted the disease from him. Sawyer’s cold-hearted conduct suggested he had a gripe against Nigerian citizens. The best way to make known his hatred for Nigerians, he reasoned in his frail health, was to pass on his highly lethal disease to medical staff of the Lagos hospital where he was being treated.
It is uncharitable for Sawyer to intentionally infect healthcare officials who were looking after him with the deadly virus he knew would eventually consume his life. Owing to the vile nature of his behaviour, because he wanted to spread the Ebola virus to as many Nigerians as possible before his death, the epitaph in Sawyer’s graveside should read: Here lies the ugly remains of the greatest villain to visit Nigeria who came with the ultimate objective to transmit to other people a highly infectious disease.
This is what I find most revolting about Sawyer’s behaviour. The kind-hearted medical staff at the Lagos hospital handled him in a most compassionate and caring way. Sawyer then returned that goodwill with the characteristic dishonesty, disrespect, evil intention, and that air of conceit that men of bad character such as Sawyer are known for.
The death of Dr. Stella Adadevoh, the exceptional medical consultant, who contracted the Ebola virus from Sawyer, shows once again that there are men who are prepared to reward other people’s benevolence with malicious behaviour. Sawyer’s conduct must be condemned because it was the equivalent of murder by stealth. Dr. Adadevoh didn’t deserve to die because she was treating a patient in the hospital where she worked. Similarly, the two nurses who died in the same hospital where Sawyer was being treated should not have died. If they knew the infectious and deadly nature of Sawyer’s ailment, they would have taken adequate care to protect themselves from infection.
Dr. Adadevoh’s death touched many hearts, not least because of her altruistic actions but also because of the professional way she treated Sawyer in the hospital. Dr. Adadevoh is being celebrated as an extraordinary woman because she successfully restrained Sawyer from discharging himself from the hospital and, therefore, mingling with more people in our society.
If Sawyer had escaped from the hospital, many more Nigerians would have become infected with the Ebola virus. For this single act of self-sacrifice, for putting her life in danger to save us all from what would have been a major health hazard, Dr. Adadevoh deserves the highest national honour. She should be given a state funeral in appreciation of her services to her profession and indeed her fatherland. She gave her life so that we all should live longer.
The full impact of Dr. Adadevoh’s act of bravery in the face of pressure to discharge Sawyer from the hospital was outlined by Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, in his tribute to the incomparable woman. The Health Minister said: “Nigeria would have been in a serious disaster now if it were not for the effort of Dr. Adadevoh, who insisted that Sawyer would not be allowed to pass through Lagos after he was diagnosed to be carrier of the deadly disease.” Dr. Adadevoh’s exceptional act of valour, said the Health Minister, was “the fact that she (Adadevoh) led the medical team that prevented Sawyer from moving out of Lagos and also to manage him until he died…”
If Sawyer had been allowed to leave the hospital where he was being treated, the nation would be on the edge of national disaster by now. Far more people would have become infected with the Ebola virus. Far more would have died or become seriously sick. And the virus would have reached the remote corners of the nation, thus making it extremely difficult to identify the source of the disease and how to manage it. If Dr. Adadevoh had not stood her ground and refused to grant Sawyer early and unwarranted discharge from the hospital, perhaps the nation would be struggling by now to manage a major health hazard.
The nation needed a woman of high character and strength such as Dr. Adadevoh to withstand the pressure that was placed on her from various dubious sources who wanted Sawyer to be discharged from the hospital, even though his health was deteriorating rather than improving. An unethical and lily-livered doctor would have done some underhand deals, accepted some gratifications under the table and discharged Sawyer into the society where he would be free to spread the virus to any number of people.
The post Why Patrick Sawyer should be demonised appeared first on The Sun News.
from http://ift.tt/I8U8zQ
Thanks for Reading The LATEST UPDATE:
Why Patrick Sawyer should be demonisedSHARE WITH FRIENDS