Even on a Saturday, the hustling and bustling at Obalende bus stop did not slow its pace. Loud music blasting from makeshift shops inside the motor parks serenaded commuters stuck in the early morning traffic. Pedestrians cursed and dodged commercial drivers with blood-shot eyes as they drove drunkenly into the parks, forcing the rickety vehicles they oppressed to wheeze in protest.
Such was the pulse at Obalende when our correspondent visited there last Saturday. It was just past 10 o’clock in the morning, but business activities were already in full throttle. Lost in the bedlam, however, was a high-rise, red-brick building with a sparse dose of white paint. Like an orphan, the building cut a lonely figure. Though there was no visible signpost, it did not take rocket science to discover that this, indeed, was First Consultant Hospital – the medical center which has largely dominated national discourse and the airwaves since July 20.
Sandwiched between an Oando Petrol filling station and another high-rise building, the hospital stuck out like a sore thumb. This is where the late Liberian-American, Mr. Patrick Sawyer, who had end stage Ebola Virus Disease, drew his last breath. The hospital breasts the Ikoyi bridge and stands directly opposite the Obalende Bus Terminal.
Since its establishment, First Consultant Hospital had nursed hundreds of patients back to good health. Following the nationwide doctors’ strike which commenced on July1 2014, the authorities had no second thought opening its doors to Sawyer, a diplomat. Unknown to them, Sawyer was no ordinary patient. Reports had it that he skipped quarantine and beat the Liberian security at the airport in Monrovia to be in Nigeria. That unassuming decision to admit the fleeing diplomat, who had the Ebola virus, has so far cost the hospital two medical staff and daily revenue.
When it was decontaminated and shut by the Lagos State Government, its management had released a statement abiding with the government’s decision, “In keeping with W.H.O guidelines, the hospital is shut down briefly as full decontamination exercise is currently in progress. The re-opening of the hospital will also be in accordance with its guideline,’’ it said.
The state government, through the Special Adviser to the governor on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, had also absolved the centre of incompetence. According to Adeshina, the “hospital saved us basically by having a high index suspicion being able to call it within 24 hours. The hospital was fantastic in handling this man’s situation and I’m grateful that was the hospital he went to because I am not sure a lot of our hospitals were fully prepared,’’ she had said.
Despite media reports that First Consultant Hospital had been decontaminated and thereafter closed down till further notice, however, its gates stood slightly ajar on Saturday. People walking by threw knowing glances at the facility. Occasionally, one or two people, observed through the porous gate, moved about the premises. It was obvious there were signs of skeletal activities in the building.
Standing opposite the gate, our correspondent fought voices of reason and caution on whether to go inside the building. Ebola has been described as a highly contagious disease, with even medical personnel succumbing to its deadly embrace.
While the battle of the mind was going on, a middle-aged man wearing a light blue shirt and grey trousers sauntered out of the building. This reporter trailed him with her eyes. He turned out to be a businessman selling large film posters just outside the hospital gate.
Slowly approaching him, our correspondent took in some of the posters such as Moment of Joy, Love Wahala, Banana Island and others.
“Abeg, the hospital dey open? I wan see someone for dia,’’ she asked the man who was by now busy eating corn. “E dey open, people dey inside,’’ he also replied in pidgin.
Summoning courage, the reporter took a step closer to the health facility’s main entrance, carefully pushing the gates open with the back of her hand. First Consultant Hospital parades a cozy environment with lush green trees and an abundance of flowers in full bloom. An empty gatehouse stood on the left while a big white van was parked to its far right. Unhindered, the journalist moved past a row of vehicles parked in front of the hospital. In one of the vehicles, an exotic Ford vehicle with number plate YAB 544AQ, two men conversed, seated in the front. One was a black man and the other, a white man. They paid no attention to the reporter as she crept closer to the reception.
The reception was medium-sized with a concave wood partition. A woman sat in one of its three chairs watching an Al Jazeera channel on an LED television attached to the wall. She looked tired. A standing poster on cervical cancer was at a corner. The phrase, ‘Gift Shop’, was written on one side of the wall. On another side of the wall, the hospital’s Lagos State Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency approval was conspicuously displayed below a white wall clock.
A man seen talking on the phone in a room just behind the reception table came out and politely greeted the reporter. When she asked to see a doctor, he enquired if she had a card to which she said no. He, however, answered in the negative when she asked if the hospital had reopened while identifying herself as a journalist. While the conversation was on, the woman had disappeared but two other people, a young man and woman came in. They were offered a seat. Two other men who were apparently workers strolled in and also disappeared into the precincts. None of the people sighted wore gloves or face masks. With the tepid environment, it was hard to believe it was the same hospital where two nurses who died after having primary contacts with Sawyer, once worked. Another female doctor, who treated Sawyer, had been in isolation at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Yaba, since July – though on Saturday, she became the first Nigerian survivor of the EVD and has been discharged.
The man, who declined to identify himself, said he was not competent to talk to journalists. “I am sorry but I have not been authorised to talk to the press. But we have closed as you can see. There is no one around to talk to you,’’ he said dismissively.
Despite his reluctance, however, it was clear on Saturday that the hospital could not wait to reopen. There was a hunger for activities in the bowels of the hospital and the faces of patients coming for treatment. Efforts to talk to the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, were not successful. The commissioner claimed he could not hear our correspondent when she called. Subsequent calls and messages to his line were not returned at 8 pm press time on Monday. Also, Adeshina did not respond to calls and messages to her line.
Outside the premises of the hospital, however, the cloud of suspicion remained thick. At the Oando filling station, attendants recoiled and refused to talk about the hospital. “The management has told us not to talk to journalists. Even the NTA has been here,’’ said a male attendant whose name tag read Adedeji Oluseye.
The next building to the hospital is home to RIC Microfinance Bank, Frutos Fast-food and a couple of other business concerns. The manager at the restaurant, who also refused to be identified, however swore he had no customer from the hospital. In his words, the outbreak at the hospital has not affected the patronage at his restaurant.
But feelers from Obalende’s hot spots are drastically different. Shop owners in the downtown lamented that Obalende had not been the same since Sawyer was brought to the hospital. Beyond its notoriety as a transport hub, Obalende is a commercial cradle where artisans, petty traders, small and medium enterprises make a living.
Ajeniya Street articulates that entrepreneurial spirit of Obalende. Here, shop owners reveal that the Ebola outbreak has reshaped how business is conducted. When the Ebola news broke, a tailor, Mr. Oluwasesan Fowoba, said, he was initially confused about the affected hospital. Fowoba, who claimed to have a customer who is a doctor at the hospital, said he was lucky that the doctor was not in the country when Sawyer was admitted.
“Life is generally no longer the same here. Customers don’t want to come to Obalende now. It is as if Ebola is sitting right at the bus stop ready to jump at people. Now, it is more about home service. Customers call us to come and pick clothes in their houses. They prefer that to coming here. Even when you go there, they no longer shake your hands. Sometimes, they leave the clothe with the gateman. But I carry my sanitiser with me everywhere I go. I won’t lie to you, even I was initially afraid when I first heard the news,’’ he added.
Before settling for sanitisers, Fowoba had tried the hot water and salt therapy which scientists warned was useless and dangerous to the skin. “I took my bath with hot water mixed with salt two times. But I had to stop when I heard that some people died after doing the same thing. Now, I just use my sanitiser and do away with hugging or sharing plates and cutlery with other people,’’ Fowoba pointed out.
Another businessman on the street, Mr. Ayoola Kebesan, said despite its proximity, he has never been a guest or patient at the hospital. Unlike Fowoba, however, he is not given to sanitisers and silly hot baths.
‘That hospital has never been for I never chop. It was unbelievable that this thing can happen in our own Obalende. I did not believe it until my customers called to say they would be staying away from here for a while. It is amazing when you watch the CNN and the BBC and you see them call Obalende. We are now popular because of Ebola. But as you can see, no one has Ebola here. As for me, I don’t use any salt or sanitiser. Jesus is my protection. The person that will die of motor accident will not die of motorcycle accident,’’ he reasoned.
A teenager who works in the photography shop of his father on the street, Biodun Oguntade, admitted that residents had always viewed the hospital as highbrow. He expressed sadness that Obalende appeared to have been demonised by the virus.
“We are praying that the government will contain this outbreak quickly. We want our customers back. In the time being, we wash out hands often and avoid bush meat of any kind,’’ he said.
Credit: Folasade Adebayo
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