Mohamed Koker, 54, left the West African country more than 20 years ago during the violent civil war - but hes now back to treat the sick Homecoming: Mohamed Koker was born in Sierra Leone but is now a clinical fellow in the UK One of the British medics who will be fighting Ebola on the African frontline was forced to flee Sierra Leone more than 20 years ago amid the violent civil war, writes Steve Myall in the Sunday People . Now Mohamed Koker is returning to the country of his birth to fight the killer disease spreading into the areas where his brothers and sisters still live. His family have already been devastated by the epidemic and in August his cousin Baindu Feika, her husband and six teenage children were all killed. The 54-year-old said: “I came to England when people were dying in great numbers in my country and now we are here again and I must help. “I have seen people die but the scale of death is beyond anything I have had to cope with. The whole country is an emergency room and it is my duty to help. “The medical facilities in the country are at breaking point. I will not save everybody but if one person lives because of what I am doing then it will be worthwhile.” Mohamed, now a clinical fellow in emergency medicine at Lewisham Hospital, London, trained as a nurse in Connaught Hospital in the capital Freetown which is where British nurse Will Pooley was working when he contracted ebola. He later trained as a doctor in the former Soviet Union and moved to the UK in 1991 just as the war in his own country was raging. Mohamed, a father-of-one with four grandchildren, the youngest just four months, is acutely aware of the situation he faces where a mortality rate can be as high 90% and almost 5,500 have died. He said: “I know it is dangerous and there is a risk but I have had good training. I have a learnt a lot in the NHS and now have knowledge I want to share to save lives back home. “My family are very cautious about me going and my 12 year-old grand-daughter Grace told me ‘be careful Grandad, I love you’ but I feel I have to do something. “My youngest grand-daughter is just four months old and I know that if she had been born in an area with Ebola she may not have been around.” He said: “I planned to come to the UK for a month or so but never expected the war to last 10 years. My family had to run from the town and hide in the bush or they would have been killed. “Many of my friends were displaced by the fighting and I know some people who died. The area where I used to live was burnt to the ground and when I returned it was unrecognisable. “The country was just starting to recover and fulfil its potential when Ebola came and here we are again.” Mohamed’s surviving family live in the east of the country in an area that is Ebola free but he says they are constantly on alert for cases. He said: “I have been been back lots of times but this time I will not see them for fear of transmitting the disease – I said I will wave from one side of the country to them. “I have spoken to the village chief and elders advising them on how to look out for signs of the disease and they are on their guard. I think that by fighting the disease I am helping to protect them.” He became a doctor after two childhood friends died of Lassa fever in Sierra Leone and said he still sends as much as a third of his UK salary back to his family to help send his nieces and nephews to school. Mohamed is one of around 30 NHS medics from across the UK who headed to Sierra Leone to join Britain’s fight against ebola
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 16:44:07 +0000
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