11 October 2014 Kenya: The Diary of a Medical Student - Lessons From Ebola for Kenyans
By Diana Wangari It is said there is no greater helping hand than the one found at the end of your own arm. This couldn't be clearer than in the work done by Fatu Kekula, a 22-yearold nursing student in Liberia. The nursing student, who is in her final year, might as well be referred to as a onewoman hospital. The country is devastated by the Ebola crisis where the healthcare system has been stretched past its limits - the existing facilities are overcrowded and the remaining health professionals are over-burdened. Patients are thus being turned away from isolation centres, leading to continued spread of the virus and a high mortality rate.
As such, when Fatu's father was infected with Ebola, she had to take him back home after three hospitals declined to take him, as they were already filled to capacity. At home, her father infected three other family members, and that's when she realised she must take matters into her own hands. She invented the 'trash bag' method. She would wrap paper bags over her feet, wear boots, then put on another layer of paper bag over her boots, wear a rain coat, put on four pairs of gloves, wrap her hair and wear a paper bag on her head with a mask to tend to her family. Armed with the little medical knowledge she had and frequent consultation with her family doctor who, as expected, stopped making house calls, she would check on the infected family members several times a day.
One can imagine what a cumbersome process that must have been, and how she might have been easily tempted to leave out one of the trash bags. I mean, she donned five bags per session. But she understood that a moment of weakness could very easily cost the life of not just her family members, but herself, and she was not going to let that happen. Her work paid off. Three of her family members survived and are now recovering in a hospital. Plus she was not infected. Her cousin passed away and sad as that may be, Fatu managed to keep three other people alive. That is more than can be said in a country where seven of 10 people are dying from Ebola. Her innovation is now being taught all around West Africa.
As I watched the report on the one-woman hospital on CNN, I couldn't help but think of my own countrymen. How many of us faced with such a situation would have stepped up to the challenge? Or would the majority of us have resigned ourselves to the infamous Serikali saidia mentality that so often features whenever there's a crisis that receives media attention? What would it take for Kenyans to realise the government can't be the solution to all our problems? Isn't it time for us to take responsibility for our own lives?