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Kodjo Adadevoh and his wife, Debbie, talk about Kodjo's sister Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, who died after treating Nigeria's first case of Ebola. She is being lauded as hero for not allowing patient to leave the hospital despite political pressure.

(Keith Muccilli/For The Star-Ledger)



Ameyo Stella Adadevoh was a hero to her younger brother, Kodjo, long before she was being called a national hero in their native Nigeria.

"She looked out for everybody and everything. That was her way," said Kodjo Adadevoh, reflecting on his sister's life, in his Flemington home with his wife, Debbie, by his side. "My father called her a 'tornado' because she was a force, a very powerful person."

The couple lives in a development not far from the junction of Routes 202 and 31. Kodjo is a Johns Hopkins-educated biotech chemist who works developing orphan drugs. Debbie is a social worker. They have three boys. Their home is decorated with African art and sculpture; Kodjo's family is from Nigeria by way of Ghana, Debbie is from the Caribbean.

On this summer night, their neighborhood was filled with joggers and dog walkers, people who have only heard about the medical crisis in Africa on the news. But the Adadevohs have lived it, in the most unfortunate way.

Kodjo's sister, Ameyo Adadevoh, was the chief medical officer at First Consultants Medical Centre in Obalende, Lagos, Nigeria, when a Liberian-American named Patrick Sawyer showed up ill.

While nearby African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierre Leone had seen several thousand cases of the deadly Ebola virus, Nigeria had so far been spared.

So Sawyer was diagnosed as having either yellow fever or malaria when he arrived in Lagos on July 20. Then Adadevoh got a look at him.

She concluded it was Ebola, and forbade Sawyer from leaving the hospital. Sawyer protested, and even got the Liberian embassy to push for his release.

"He was a diplomat on his way to an economic conference, and he didn't want to be stopped," Kodjo said.

According to some Nigerian reports, Sawyer had left a quarantine facility in Liberia knowing he was carrying the deadly virus. In Nigeria, he was belligerent and purposely tried to infect the staff, according to those reports.

"She physically stopped him from leaving the hospital at one point," Debbie Adadevoh said. "We heard from other medical staff that he got up and ripped out his IV, dripping blood everywhere, and Ameyo physically restrained him."

"She was determined to keep him there, because she knew the greater risk," Kodjo said.

There were two sides to that greater risk. One was to the population of Lagos and Nigeria as a whole, and the other was to herself.

"She was a damn good doctor and knew it would be irresponsible to let him leave," Kodjo said. "But she also knew to treat him, she would expose herself to the virus."

Perhaps the greatest example of her character is that she refused to let Nigeria health officials quarantine Sawyer in what she felt was an inadequate medical facility, despite the trouble he had caused her.

"It was basically an abandoned building, so she would not let him be moved there, even though she knew it put her at risk," Kodjo said. "She had a duty to her patient to do all she could (to get him well)."

Sawyer died on July 27, but not before infecting several members of the hospital staff.

And then the waiting game was on. The incubation period for the disease is 21 days after contact, and for the first two weeks, Ameyo was doing well.

"We were so worried for her, but she called us on day 13 and said she was feeling fine," Debbie said.

And then the calls stopped.

"She was always in touch, so we got very concerned," Kodjo said. "Then we heard from her son who said she wasn't acting right. She was vomiting and not lucid."

Ameyo Adadevoh died on Aug. 19, less than a month after her first contact with Sawyer, who died on July 27. She was 58.

As news spread, tributes began pouring in, some comparing Adadevoh to her prominent forefathers who fought for Nigerian independence. On her father's side, her great-grandfather was Herbert Macaulay, one of the founders of modern Nigeria, whose picture remains on the 1 naira coin. On her mother's side was Nnamdi Azikiwe, another Nigerian nationalist and president of the country in the 1960s.

The Nigeria media compared Ameyo's heroism and patriotism to those two men.

An editorial in the Nigeria Tribune said Adadevoh "needs to be truly celebrated" and called her a person with "deep commitment and sense of patriotism" who made an "extreme sacrifice."

The Street Journal of Nigeria wrote "Adadevoh's heroic and patriotic deed will long be remembered. She took it upon herself to help Nigeria prevent further spread of the virus."

Tributes came in, from the top echelon of the Nigerian health community to the impoverished patients she treated.

"We've heard so many stories about her, and her generosity and care of people," Debbie said.

Ameyo had an arrangement with the hospital pharmacy to dispense medication to people who could not afford it and put it on her tab.

"At the end of every month, she paid the bill," Kodjo said.

They heard from a family who needed to take a child to India for treatment of a rare disease. Ameyo helped fund the trip and paid for the child's treatment there.

"These kind of stories keep coming in," Debbie said. "We've heard so many."

"She was a humanitarian," Kodjo said. "She was a great humanitarian."

The family is now teaming with the Nigerian medical, business and political communities to begin a health trust in her name.

"We want to continue the work she started, but on a grander scale," Kodjo said. "We're looking to build hospitals, educate medical professionals and fund research. We want it to be big. That's the least we could do for her."

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