Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer
The Nigerian man who set off alarm bells at the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester last Saturday, after medical personnel there mistakenly thought he was displaying symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus, has warned that Jamaica is in trouble if his ordeal is any indication of the country's preparedness for the disease.
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| Dr Bob Banjo displays his passport to show that he returned to Jamaica well outside of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola. Banjo also displays a Ghanaian/Nigerian health certificate confirming that he did not have the Ebola virus when he left the region. Ian Allen/Photographer |
Dr Bob Banjo, who has resided in Jamaica for the last 28 years, blasted nurses and other employees at the hospital as being ill-prepared for an Ebola outbreak and described how some became hysterical after he revealed that he had travelled to his homeland in July.
Banjo, in recounting his ordeal to The Gleaner yesterday, admitted that he had dizzy spells and was sweating profusely when he turned up at the hospital and said the doctor on duty assigned a nurse to take his temperature and blood pressure.
He said the test showed that his blood pressure was high, prompting the nurse to ask him if he had travelled overseas this year.
Banjo said he admitted to visiting Nigeria from July 16 to August 27 and recounted the panic and hysteria that followed.
"The moment I told the nurse I travelled to Nigeria, she ran out and told the doctor [and] the whole hospital - even patients and the staff. They went haywire," he recounted.
"Because they claimed, 'This is somebody from Nigeria; he has Ebola'," he asserted.
NINE-HOUR WAIT
The result, Banjo claimed, was that it took medical personnel more than nine hours to inform him that the dizziness and sweating he was experiencing was likely to have been caused by food poisoning or high blood pressure and prescribed medication. more
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