Ebola crisis in Liberia: Family of dead victim threatens lawsuit, JFK Hospital to be shut down

Liberia is slipping into a bigger crisis situation with the Ebola epidemic spreading like wild fire in that country. Hours ago, a Liberian suspected to be harbouring the virus in Nigeria was confirmed dead and the authorities of a state run John F. Kennedy (JFK) Memorial Hospital are reported to be considering a shut down of all activities at the hospital for 21-days due to the increasing number of reported Ebola cases.

JFK is one of the biggest state run referral hospitals in Monrovia and had received a number of Ebola suspected cases, many of whom have died.
The news comes amidst unconfirmed reports of the death of one of the hospital's senior medical practitioner, Dr, Samuel Brisbane from the deadly Ebola virus on Thursday July 24, 2014.

In the same vein, Family members and colleagues of a victim. Michael Tengbeh, who was pronounced dead from the Ebola Virus Disease by the Charles Rennie Hospital in Kakata, Margibi County have threatened sue the hospital. They claim that the victim was killed by doctors at the hospital and did not die from Ebola as was announced by the hospital.

It was gathered that Tengbeh's father believed that his son had a family sickness traceable to his mother's background, which according to him, had killed two of his sisters. Thomas said the father further averred that it was a family member who threw the sickness on them (Michael's mother, sisters and others).

According to him, they intended offering a sacrifice to cure him but doctors at the C. H. Rennie Hospital had earlier diagnosed him of having laser fever, while pronouncing within that same period that he died of Ebola.

Colleagues believe that the victim was kept in isolation without being attended to until he died.

AllAfrica.com also reported that "what seemed an unprecedented form of protest against the Liberian government's handling of the deadly Ebola virus erupted on Wednesday when a Liberian man identified as Edward Wellington Dellay set the conference room at the ministry of health and social welfare in Congo Town on fire in the early afternoon.

"It took Maintenance workers who found it difficult to reach the area of the blaze, as the Liberia Fire Service was nowhere in sight to put out the blaze in the health ministry building to curb the fire".

Additional report from NewDawn Newspaper, Monrovia