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Review
. 2024 Oct 16;16(10):e71650.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.71650. eCollection 2024 Oct.

One Woman, One Nation: The Heroic Story of Dr. Stella Adadevoh

Muhammed Raji Modibbo  1 , Hadiza Ibrahim  2 , Fatima S Ahmed  3
Affiliations
Review

One Woman, One Nation: The Heroic Story of Dr. Stella Adadevoh

Muhammed Raji Modibbo et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

In 2014, Nigeria faced a near-existential threat when Ebola was introduced to Lagos, a city of over 20 million people. Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh (1956-2014), a physician at First Consultant Hospital, played a pivotal role in preventing the spread of the virus by making the crucial decision to quarantine the index case, Patrick Sawyer, despite intense governmental pressure to release him. This review explores Dr. Adadevoh's life, her heroic actions during the Ebola crisis, and the lasting impact of her work on Nigeria's public health system. It also highlights the ethical and professional challenges she faced, including balancing patient autonomy with the need for public safety. Through her brave decision-making, Dr. Adadevoh sacrificed herself to save countless lives and ensured Nigeria's swift containment of the deadly virus, leaving behind an inspirational legacy of medical ethics, leadership, and courage that continues to influence public health policy today. This paper highlights the lessons learned from her actions, emphasizing the critical role of decisive leadership in managing infectious disease outbreaks and the profound selflessness and courage she demonstrated.

Keywords: ebola; ebola virus; ebola virus disease epidemic; ethic; ethical and legal principles in medical practice; lagos; nigeria.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The fight against Ebola in West Africa.
Image © 2015 EC/ECHO/Jean-Louis Mosser, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 License. Full license details are available at [9].
Figure 2
Figure 2. Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh.
Image courtesy of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust (DRASA), used with permission.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Launching Event of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust (DRASA).
Image courtesy of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust (DRASA), used with permission.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Health promoting community engagement by DRASA.
Image courtesy of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh Health Trust (DRASA), used with permission.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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