#Ebola: Nigerian Angel, Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh honored with Google Doodle on 62nd Posthumous Birthday

Ronke Kehinde/

 

Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh is not around to mark her 62^nd birthday today, but Google has seized the initiative to celebrate the woman who saved the lives of millions of Nigerians by sacrificing her own.

Google Doodle today reminds the world of the heroic deed of the Nigerian physician who saved the nation from a major Ebola catastrophe on a day Nigerian Doctors were on strike.

NewsmakersNG is the first Newspaper to join Google today in the celebration of Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, who curbed a wider spread of the Ebola virus in Nigeria by placing the patient zero, Patrick Sawyer who flew into the country, in quarantine despite pressures from the Liberian government.

She died on August 19, 2014, after Sawyer infected her with the virus.

She is known for preventing the Nigerian index case from leaving the hospital at the time of diagnosis, thereby playing a key role in curbing the spread of the virus in Nigeria.

On August 4, 2014, it was confirmed that she had tested positive for Ebola virus disease and was being treated.

Adadevoh died in the afternoon of August 19, 2014. She was survived by her husband Afolabi and son Bankole among other relatives.

Early life and family

According to her Wikipedia records, Stella Ameyo Adadevoh was born in Lagos, Nigeria on October 27, 1956. She spent the majority of her life in Lagos, Nigeria. Her father and great-grandfather, Babatunde Kwaku Adadevoh and Herbert Samuel Macaulay, were both distinguished scientists. Herbert Macaulay is one of the founders of modern Nigeria. Her grandfather was from the Adadevoh family of the Volta Region of Ghana, to which she was very much connected, though she lived in Lagos.

Stella Ameyo Adadevoh’s father was a physician and former Vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh was also the grandniece of Nigeria’s first President, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.

She worked at First Consultant Hospital where a statue of her great-grandfather exists.

 

Education

She went to preschool at the Mainland Preparatory Primary School in Yaba, Lagos (1961-1962). She spent two years in Boston, Massachusetts before moving back with her family to Lagos. She attended primary school at the Corona School, Yaba, in Lagos, Nigeria (1964-1968), and attended Queen’s School, Ibadan, finishing in 1974.

Medical education and career

Dr. Adadevoh graduated from the University of Lagos’ College of Medicine with a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery. She served her one-year mandatory housemanship at Lagos University Teaching Hospital in 1981. She spent her residency at Lagos University Teaching Hospital West African College of Physicians and Surgeons credential in 1983. She then went to London to complete her fellowship in endocrinology at Hammersmith Hospital. She spent 21 years at the First Consultants Medical Center in Lagos, Nigeria. There, she served as the Lead Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist.

 

Work with swine flu

Dr. Adadevoh was the first to alert the Nigerian Ministry of Health when H1N1 spread to Nigeria in 2012.

 

Work with Ebola virus

Dr. Adadevoh correctly diagnosed Liberian Patrick Sawyer as Nigeria’s first case of Ebola at First Consultant Hospital in Lagos, Nigeria in July 2014. She kept Patrick Sawyer at the hospital despite his insistence that he had a bad case of Malaria. Sawyer wanted to attend a business conference in Calabar, Nigeria but stayed to lead the team that oversaw the treatment of Sawyer.

Dr. Adadevoh also kept Sawyer at the hospital despite receiving a request from a Liberian ambassador to release him from the hospital.

Dr. Adadevoh tried to create an isolation area, despite the lack of protective equipment, by creating a wooden barricade outside Patrick Sawyer’s door. Her heroic effort saved the nation from widespread infection, as of these events, Nigerian Doctors were on strike, and that could have caused severe crises.

The professionalism and thorough medical examination carried out by Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh were impeccable. Adadevoh also provided staff with relevant information about the virus, procured protective gear and quickly contacted relevant officials. As a result of her report, the Nigerian government declared a national public health emergency and the Nigerian Ministry of Health set up an Ebola Emergency Operations Center. WHO declared Nigeria to be Ebola-free on October 20, 2014.

 

Marriage and Children

Ameyo Adadevoh married Afolabi Emmanuel Cardoso on April 26, 1986. She gave birth to her only son Bankole Cardoso.

Death and legacy

Dr Adadevoh succumbed to the Ebola Virus Disease whilst in quarantine and passed away on August 19, 2014, in Lagos. Her body was decontaminated and cremated by the government in response to the containment of the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease. Her family obtained her ashes and held a private interment ceremony on September 12, 2014, in Lagos. The Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh Health Trust (DRASA), a non-profit health organization was created in her honour. The film “93 Days” is dedicated to Ameyo and tells the story of the treatment of Patrick Sawyer by Adadevoh and other medical staff at First Consultant Medical Center.

Honours and Awards:

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