Nigeria, has defended her husband's decision to travel to Africa's
most populous country, saying he did so in desperate search for a
country with better healthcare system than his own country.
In an article published earlier today, TMZ Liberia Magazinequoted
Decontee Sawyer, who is a radio host in New York, as explaining that
Mr. Sawyer had no trust in the healthcare system in Liberia and had
possibly headed to Nigeria with the hope of receiving better treatment
for his ailment.
Mrs. Sawyer shared her thoughts on her Facebook profile from which TMZ
Liberia sourced it for publication.
"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," she wrote.
"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 to end. So, I bet anything that he was
thinking, if I could only get to Nigeria, a way more developed country
than Liberia, I would be able to get some help. How ironic."
Many Nigerians, and even Liberians, condemned Mr Sawyer for traveling
to Nigeria despite knowing that he was carrying Ebola virus before
embarking on the trip. Some Nigerians on social media have described
him as a "biological terrorist" arguing that he came into the country
deliberately to spread the disease.
On Monday in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan described Mr Sawyer's
decision to travel to Nigeria as pure "madness" and "craziness."
"Sawyer that brought this Ebola to Nigeria; his sister died of Ebola.
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," President Jonathan said.
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.
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