Michelle Dynes (MD) and Anne Purfield (AP):
MD: One day I had gone out in one of the villages. And I met a woman who was crying. And she said, ”I’ve lost 10 members of my family, and two of them died this morning.”
AP: Within a matter of three weeks she lost almost everyone she cared about. And then on top of that, you can’t touch anyone.
MD: Exactly.
AP: You can’t comfort them.
MD: Imagine losing 10 members of your family and no one giving you a hug.
AP: But I think back, too, what happened with the baby at the hospital—whose mother came in and died, and the baby was in a box. They tested the baby and the baby was negative. But I think the symptoms in babies and the disease progression in babies is different than adults.
MD: Right.
AP: So the nurses would pick up and cuddle the baby. And they were taking care of the baby in the box. And then twelve of them got Ebola. And one survived.
MD: Because they couldn’t just watch a baby sitting alone in a box.
By the time we had arrived more than 20 nurses had died from Ebola. And nearly all of the phlebotomists had died. And so, throughout the hospital you could see pictures of nurses hung up in remembrance of them. And the hospital staff would line the little roads as they carried out the bodies of their hospital staff. They’ve taken care of their own colleagues and watched them all die. One after another, after another.
AP: And they still go back into the wards.
MD: Yeah.
AP: I felt like we were on a ship and the water was just pouring in and there were so many holes and we just kept bailing water and bailing water and we weren’t making any difference.
MD: You know it just hits you really hard because you realize we’re only here for five weeks, six weeks. They’re here for the long haul.
