Q: Can you tell me what you do as a nurse?

FK: I’m a nurse by profession. I started as a nursing student and a community health [phonetic] nurse. I went as far as a state registered nurse. I am now a student nurse for the BS [Bachelor of Science] in Nursing.

Q: When did you decide growing up that you needed to be a nurse?

FK: I trained as a teacher first. But I believe that nursing is a calling, because I was trained as a teacher, and started teaching, but then something happened with me that led me to go into nursing. I’m very proud to be a nurse.

Q: Okay. When did you first hear about Ebola? Remember the first time you ever even heard the word Ebola? And who was the first case? Was it a man? A woman? Do you remember the circumstances about that case?

FK: We understood that someone from Guinea entered around the eastern part of Sierra Leone, where he began to manifest some signs and symptoms. I don’t know the date. The thing began to spread, because the person started manifesting some signs and symptoms at the end of day. It began to spread around the eastern part of Sierra Leone. But, funnily, what really happened, since we have little idea about epidemiology, they tried to find the way forward, at least to quarantine those areas. We never had had that experience of the disease. They politicized things because this government, anything that comes, they just want to punish those people at that particular part of the country. So politics came, and it’s politics that made us suffer.

I suffered so much, because when the thing came, my wife was also a nurse, a trained nurse, and she was working at Rokupa Government Hospital. A man, Dr. Sepik Omar, treated somebody who has got Ebola, and later the person died. This news was made known to certain people in the hospital, but my wife and the others never knew about this. The man was brought to the hospital, and he was admitted the same ward my wife was in.

Q: As she was giving care, where she was working as a nurse?

FK: Everybody was paying attention to him, including my wife. And when Dr. Charlie [phonetic] really examined that patient, he suspected Ebola, while the other members of the medical team were saying it wasn’t. In fact, they said the doctor has stigmatized this man. At the end of the day everybody has to come around him, touching him, and even when he died, my wife and others did the last office. My wife and the others, they all died as a result of this one, Dr. Sepik Omar [phonetic].

Q: And he was a doctor? A nurse?

FK: No, he was the pharmacist. He was the pharmacist, but at his pharmacy they treat people at home. The unfortunate part of it was that the hospital never called the health workers who cared for this man for them to be quarantined, including my wife. My wife began manifesting all the signs and symptoms. And she died 11 September. In fact, when she was manifesting the signs, she was at home with me. My children, too, we were all caring for her. When she vomited, we helped her empty the things, and other thing. So my elder daughter, my other daughter, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my mother, my brother, they all died as a result of this condition. We were taken at Chinese [phonetic] Hospital and later to the holding center, where they all died. I was the only person that was able to survive out of it. So I am not only as a nurse, to tell the story; I am what—I suffered the pain, you know. You see? I suffered the pain. This is the certificate of my wife, who died, and this is my discharge certificate. The only person that was really helping me, was the registrar.

Q: Yes. She told me about calling you every day.

FK: She really played a part. She acted as a mother [phonetic] to me. She was checking me day in, day out, calling me. She helped me. And then after I was discharged, I faced a lot of stigmatization. Even at the faculty—by then I was doing my RN—nobody would come close to me, and when I went to pray nobody. Even my colleagues were moving away from me. I was really embarrassed. And then after some time I joined the holding center at [unclear] Hospital. I was trying to help to save other people. If there is anything to be done, we, the people that suffered this, and the nurses—there are nurses, well, they never survived. I survived. I went through it. I know how it happens, unlike the others, who’d only heard it. I’m working again on the response team.

Q: So— [pause] I’m just praying for you. [pause] Fonti, when you—

FK: Sometimes when we are called upon to these interviews, we don’t want to face that, because you can just face a lot of embarrassment, talk about the old things. But I think God is having a purpose [phonetic]. That’s why I’m pushing myself now, at least to serve best I can. I began to join other holding centers, taking care of people. We are donating blood for others. We come and they collect our blood. We did a lot of hard things. But because of the stigma sometimes I don’t want to talk about it, because when you talk about it they’re supposed to help us to learn, but you can’t teach others about, because we get the life story.

We don’t only work, but we went through the systems, and we were really affected. As the saying goes, who feels it, knows it better.

Q: And we only—we often don’t understand why us, and why—I was going to say the path of Allah, path of whoever we give worship to, why us, and why would this be my journey to go on. You must have a lot of higher powers that are really guiding you to be who you are today. What would you want to be different if we had another outbreak? What would you say for nurses we should do differently? Just not as nurses, but as nursing leaders. How do we change things? How are our voices heard differently?

FK: Capacity-building is very, very important. And people should be able, at least, to change the attitude of—particularly with the health workers. We don’t do most of the hand hygiene. The education about Ebola stopped long ago, and that’s supposed to continue. People must learn about it, and even this IPC [infection prevention and control] is supposed to be incorporated into the curriculum, people should not only learn about it but to put it into practice.

What are they doing? Do we have at least a blood bank? That is not happening. If you know that this person has immunity, there is something that you have to do with regards to blood use. Scientifically, they know what to do. Well, all those things are not in place. We are just following the money, money, money. The right things are not being done.

That’s why I really want to-—if I finish my program, I really want to go into this epidemiology, because if you are going to do something you must be part of the team to see how best this will not come back to this country. That is my dream.

Q: Do you think that communities have changed about Ebola now? So I know there was a lot of fear, there was a lot of stigma. Do you think people are generally more educated because of it now, to face other epidemics? In terms of awareness, in terms of fear, or not touching, or things that have no scientific basis, right? They’re people acting out of fear or ignorance.

FK: Well, to me, initially when we had the epidemic, I can see that there was awareness. But for now, people have forgotten.

Q: So quickly.

FK: People have forgotten about it. Now you people have come from afar, say you are interested in this. You know what it means. You know the effect of Ebola. That’s why you are still on it [phonetic]. But for us, we have forgotten. We don’t care. We don’t even know what has happened. Only for those of us that suffer the pain knows. Well, then they can sit and laugh. Try to not laugh, because I have over seven people [in my family] that have died of Ebola, and I also went through it. Today, I’m a single parent to my daughter, you see? But the others that were just fortunate to be part of the system, they were paid for their service, they never lose, so they can easily forget.

Q: Our responsibility is that no one forgets, right?

FK: Yes.

Q: And you certainly are a leader in making sure we don’t forget.

FK: Even though any time I have to talk about this it pains me, it makes me remember what I have lost, but all the same I should not be so selfish enough to keep it. I must say it to people so that—tell other people so that what I have survived, other people will not suffer that again. And that is my aim. I’m always ready, available, at your disposal, any time you call me on the phone, for any program related to Ebola, I’m ready at least to give my time and my support.

---

Fonti Kargbo was interviewed for Frontline Nurses by Jennifer Dohrn on August 12, 2019 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

---