Salome Karwah was one of the four healthcare workers to be named TIME Magazine’s 2014 Person Of The Year for her bravery to help care for those with the Ebola virus. Salome contracted the virus and survived, which made her immune to the disease. On February 21, 2017, she died after hospital staff refused to help her when she fell ill after having her baby in the same hospital where she was discharged three days before she died.
Karwah had complications after having a cesarean section. Three hours after she was released from the hospital, her husband and sister had to take her back. Her husband said that she was having seizures and foaming at the mouth and the staff didn’t give her medical attention because they did not want to touch her fearing they would catch the virus. Salome died the next day.
“Karwah used to joke that survivors had “super powers” — because after overcoming the disease they were forever immune from it. Like any superhero, she often quipped, it was her moral duty to use those powers for the betterment of humankind. So as soon as she recovered, she returned to the hospital where she had been treated — the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Ebola treatment unit just outside of the capital, Monrovia — to help other patients. Not only did she understand what they were going through, she was one of the rare people who could comfort the sick with hands-on touch. She could spoon-feed elderly sufferers, and rock feverish babies to sleep.”-TIME
Read A Tribute To Salome Karwah: “I Survived Ebola To Help Others”
We are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Salome Karwah, #Ebola survivor and fighter https://t.co/iEJNa4BrEm
— MSF International (@MSF) March 1, 2017
Salome Karwah’s compassionate life is a reminder that we shouldn’t accept the lack of access to health care for all: https://t.co/Prm7JUhplt
— Partners In Health (@PIH) March 2, 2017
RIP Salome Karwah. You were a true nurse hero.https://t.co/uVRPpLSKCC
— Tracy Morstad (@TLMorty) March 2, 2017
Source/Image TIME.
