Ameyo Adadevoh: The Ebola Tormentor

Everything you need to live well

Only the forgotten are truly dead- Tess Gerristen

In Nigeria’s history, few have been able to show that the impossible can be done in different sectors like Dr Stella. Ameyo Adadevoh was born in October 1956 in Lagos to the family of the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Babatunde Adadevoh.

Her great-grandfather, Herbert Macaulay, is one of the founding fathers of modern Nigeria.
Besides this, she also shares blood relations with Nigeria’s first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe.

After her secondary education at Queen’s school, Ibadan in 1974, she gained admission to study medicine at the University of Lagos. After successful graduation, housemanship and residency at the
Lagos University Teaching Hospital, she travelled to London to finish her fellowship in endocrinology at Hammersmith Hospital.

Upon completion, Adadevoh landed a job at the First Consultant Hospital where she served for 21 years. During this time, she became the Lead Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist.

In July 2014, when Liberian Patrick Sawyer (who was in Nigeria for a business conference) went to the hospital with claims of malaria, she insisted that he be kept for further tests on suspicions of Ebola. After testing him, she diagnosed him with the disease and alerted the Nigerian Ministry of Health.

Having no access to protective equipment, she procured protective gear for the other staff and devised ways of placing him in quarantine.

Her insistence on keeping him despite the order to release him by a Liberian ambassador saved the nation from contacting this disease. Adadevoh, unfortunately, died on the 19 August 2014. On the 20 of October 2014, WHO declared Nigeria Ebola-free.

The award-winning doctor has a film “93 Days” dedicated to her and this year, there was a Google Doodle in her honour.