In July 2014, as the rains washed over the busy streets of Lagos, a silent storm arrived from beyond the shores of Nigeria. Its name: Ebola. The virus crept into the nation with one man—Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American diplomat who collapsed at the airport and was rushed to First Consultants Medical Centre. What began as fever and fatigue in his body would soon ignite one of Nigeria's most critical public health battles.

At first, it seemed like the flu: a persistent fever, body weakness, and diarrhea. But within days, the symptoms worsened. Health workers treating Sawyer—brave doctors and nurses—stood on the frontlines of an invisible war. Many paid with their lives, others faced death and found their way back.

Image Credit: Unsplash

In the months that followed, Nigeria astonished the world. With swift contact tracing, public education, and relentless health surveillance, the country halted the outbreak in its tracks—just 20 confirmed cases, 12 survivors, and a fatality rate of 40%. For a nation as populous and complex as Nigeria, it was nothing short of a miracle.

It started with fever, fatigue, and diarrhea. But within days, the symptoms worsened—bringing bleeding, organ failure, and for many, death.

Even amid the darkest moments, a few survivors emerged as beacons of hope. Here are their stories.

Dr. Ada Igonoh

Image Credit: Tori.ng

Dr. Ada Igonoh had been on duty when Patrick Sawyer was admitted. Calm, intelligent, and devoted to her patients, she had no idea that this patient would change her life forever. Days after his passing, Ada began to feel unwell. Fever. Dizziness. Diarrhea. A sinking dread filled her heart as she read her lab report: Ebola positive.

She was isolated. Alone. Terrified.

“I wasn’t ready to die,” she later recalled in interviews. In her stark isolation room, she clung to hope—and to her faith. With no available cure, Ada turned to research, hydration, and prayer. She used oral rehydration salts (ORS) religiously, understanding that staying hydrated could mean the difference between life and death. She mourned the colleagues she lost—Dr. Stella Adadevoh, the hero who had bravely quarantined Sawyer against pressure, and Justina Ejelonu, a young nurse who had just discovered she was pregnant before contracting Ebola.

But Ada survived. Her strength, her prayers, and the unrelenting support of the doctors and caregivers saved her. She was declared Ebola-free after 14 days—one of only 12 people in Nigeria to emerge alive from the virus.

Eight years later, in 2022, in a quiet hospital in California, Dr. Ada Igonoh gave birth to a healthy baby girl—one of the first children born to a female Ebola survivor in Nigeria. Her daughter tested negative for the virus. The news made international headlines. 

That moment wasn’t just the beginning of a new life—it was the full circle of Ada’s journey. From a near-death experience in Lagos to the miracle of motherhood in a new land.

Dr. Ibeawuchu Morris

Dr. Ibeawuchi Morris was the physician who first received Patrick Sawyer on the day he was rushed to First Consultants Medical Centre. Reflecting on the moment, he later described it as surreal—“like a joke,” he said in his 2014 interview with the Vanguard Newspaper. 

On that day, something felt off. Normally decisive and proactive, Dr. Morris found himself unusually reluctant to attend to the patient. It was unlike him, and he couldn’t explain the hesitation.

He recalled how his colleagues had to urge him to approach Sawyer. When he finally did, he simply began talking to him—again, out of character. “As a doctor, you’re trained to examine your patient first,” he would later say. But that day, the instinct was missing.

After eventually performing an examination, Dr. Morris asked Sawyer a series of routine diagnostic questions. But the answers he received were far from truthful. Patrick Sawyer lied, and what troubled Dr. Morris most was the silence of the ECOWAS Protocol Officer seated beside him—someone who could have clarified the patient’s history but said nothing.

Dr. Morris Ibeawuchi, is now an Internal Medicine specialist practicing in Forest Hills, New York.

Dr. Fadipe Akinniyi, The Man Who simply touched a door handle.

Dr. Fadipe Akinnyi thought: All I did was open the door. That shouldn't be enough to make me sick. It was a quiet rationalization, one he clung to… until his body told a different story.

It started with a spike in his temperature. He recalled staring at the thermometer, confused and anxious. He tried to dismiss it. He self-medicated with antimalarial drugs, hoping it was nothing more. But his condition only worsened. Still in denial, he checked himself into a private hospital, convinced they could treat whatever it was, anything but Ebola.

But things deteriorated quickly. The fever raged. Vomiting and diarrhea set in. He could no longer ignore the truth.

Summoning courage, Dr. Fadipe called the Ebola monitoring unit. He told them his temperature had remained persistently high. They assured him not to panic, they would come for him. Four hours later, the ambulances arrived, and he was transported to the Yaba Isolation Centre.

“It all happened like a dream,” he would later recall. In medical school, he had studied hemorrhagic viruses, read about the terrifying effects of Ebola—how the body bleeds, collapses, and gives in. Never did he imagine that one day, it would be his reality.

But he survived, and in 2018 he and his wife welcomed a bouncing baby girl. Akinniyi is now a faculty at Loma Linda University.

Dennis Akagha

Dennis Akagha never imagined that the deadliest days of his life would begin with something as ordinary as encouraging his fiancée to go to work.

His story was different from that of the doctors. He wasn’t a healthcare worker, but his fiancée, Justina Ejelonu Obioma, was. She had just resumed work as a nurse at First Consultants Medical Centre. It was her very first day on the job. She was two months pregnant, uncertain about continuing due to her condition. Still, Dennis encouraged her to go in and speak with her supervisors, hoping they’d adjust her schedule.

That first patient she ever attended to? Patrick Sawyer.

When she came home that day, she told Dennis about the unusual patient she had cared for. Neither of them fully understood the gravity of what had happened. She was feeling feverish, which they initially attributed to pregnancy. The next day, she went to work again. Then, she had two days off. They were at home when news broke that Nigeria’s first Ebola case had been confirmed—Patrick Sawyer.

Justina turned to him and quietly said, “That was my patient.”

Dennis was stunned. He asked her to be sure—“Are you certain?” She nodded and explained that she had worn gloves and followed basic precautions. Hearing that, Dennis was briefly reassured. But inside, uncertainty began to take root.

Soon, her condition worsened. And before long, Dennis himself would fall ill.

His journey would lead to isolation, grief, and ultimately, survival. Unfortunately Justina wouldn’t follow him on this survival journey, as she passed away.

Conclusion

The lessons from these stories are many. Courage stands out as a vital quality, but equally important is the responsibility to avoid actions driven by desperation that can harm others, like Patrick Sawyer’s decision to travel while ill.

His arrival also sparked suspicion toward American authorities, as Sawyer was a U.S. citizen. Some believed his presence in Nigeria was no accident but a deliberate attempt to infect the population, especially after Liberian officials requested his release from quarantine despite his obvious symptoms.

The bravery of Dr. Stella Adadevoh and the medical team, who successfully contained the outbreak, inspired the 2016 Nigerian drama thriller film 93 Days, which dramatizes these pivotal events.

Image Above: First Consultant Medical Center. Credit: Google

Cover Image Credit: Unsplash