Surviving Ebola-CARING FOR CHILDREN

Article by Lenny Bernstein, Photography by Michel du Cille, Published: December 7, 2014

Recovering from one of the most fearsome infections known to humankind should provide a time of unsurpassed joy. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

More than 3,100 Liberians have died of Ebola. But against long odds, some fortunate people have overcome the virus. They have been granted one precious gift, something even modern medicine cannot convey: immunity to this strain of the disease.

This is what it’s like to survive the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

CARING FOR CHILDREN

Decontee Davis, 23, works at a child-care center, a two-story concrete building behind a tall iron gate in Monrovia. Children played inside and out on a recent sunny afternoon. Others watched television. The hubbub would sound normal anywhere in the world.

But any of these 13 children could be coming down with Ebola. All are from homes where parents or guardians have been taken away to treatment centers or died of Ebola. Now the youngsters must be monitored for 21 days, to determine whether they are infected as well.
The job falls to a staff of 10, all survivors of Ebola like Davis, who watch them 24 hours a day.

Davis was a part-time student and a single mother with a 5-year-old son when she came down with Ebola in early August, after bathing an aunt who had the disease. Her family took her to the ELWA 2 Ebola treatment center in Monrovia. Her fiancee was also admitted.

Days of hell ensued. Davis lost her eyesight and became too weak to move. She had constant diarrhea. She could not hold down any fluids, which are critical to surviving the disease. A doctor “would hold a bottle to my mouth,” she said. “I would drink it. As soon as it enter my system, I would vomit it out.”

Davis’s fiance died. A woman perished in front of her. Terrified, Davis called her father. To calm her, he read her scripture over the phone.

One day, she felt well enough to ask for a toothbrush. Soon, she was able to clean herself.

“I had the strength to take my own water and carry it to the bathroom. I had the strength to wake up from my bed and brush my own teeth. So these are things that gave me courage. I thought ‘Yes … I am responding to treatment,’ ” she said.

She was discharged Sept. 1. Only then did she learn what had been happening at home in Mount Barclay, a small town northeast of Monrovia.

“My son could not play in the community. Everybody was afraid of him, saying his mother have Ebola … no one wanted him to infect them with that virus,” she said. Davis’s mother couldn’t buy food in the market. Friends had to bring her rice and cooking oil.

Davis decided she had to take care of children exposed to Ebola. “I make the decision from what happened to my family. I don’t want that to be repeated in other kids’ lives.

“My son had Grandmother to care for him in my absence. They may not have other people to care for them. So things will be worse for them. They may not have food to eat in the community,” she said.

Davis, like other survivors, also donated blood in hopes of helping other Ebola victims — although research on the effectiveness of such transfusions is inconclusive.

Davis’s new job can be emotionally draining. Six of the children in her care have developed Ebola symptoms. So far, she knows of one who has survived, she said. Davis prays for the strength to tend to the children.

“I will ask God to give me passion to love them like my own,” she said.