On this day, August 19, 2014, Nigeria lost a heroine. Her name was Dr. Stella Adadevoh.
She was the granddaughter of Herbert Macaulay, one of the most celebrated founders of modern Nigeria.
Two years ago, the late doctor was one of those who contracted Ebola Virus Disease from Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian official who brought the disease to Nigeria.
Dr. Adadevoh died in the evening of Tuesday, August 19, 2014, at an isolation unit in Lagos.
She worked as a senior consultant at the First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, Lagos, the hospital where Sawyer, Liberian-American who imported the disease into Nigeria, had been first attended to.
The late doctor had been quick to recognise the disease in Sawyer and detained him from leaving so that disease would not be spread among the Nigerian population. She had quickly notified the concerned authority who took necessary action.
“With this unfortunate development the total number of Ebola Virus related deaths in Nigeria now stands at five,” Mr. Dan Nwomeh, special assistant on Media to the then Health Minister Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu had announced.
Nigeria remembers Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, who died on this day, two years ago, and whose heroic actions helped us contain the Ebola virus
— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) August 19, 2016