RIP Salome Karwah
The heroic Ebola survivor died after giving birth earlier this month
She contracted Ebola while caring for her infected father. “Like a sickness from another planet,” was how she described the pain. But Salome Karwah not only survived the disease, the 26-year-old Liberian pressed on. She helped ailing neighbors and returned to the treatment unit in Monrovia that she had been lucky enough to leave. There, she donned a plastic suit and encouraged other patients to remain hopeful. The editors of TIME magazine placed her on a cover of the 2014 “Person of the Year” issue. On Tuesday, February 21, she passed away from complications related to childbirth.
How could such a strong woman die from something so routine? An article today, by TIME magazine Africa bureau chief Aryn Baker, describes her suffering convulsions. Journalist Ashoka Mukpo is also reporting a story. Whatever the specifics, the larger reason is clear. The Liberian government can afford to spend barely $50 per person per year on healthcare.
On a trip to Liberia last year, I got a sense of what that means. One of my first stops was at a rural clinic. It had no plumbing or electricity. At night, a nursing student supervised births by the glow of a kerosene lamp. Another visit was to a health center. Mothers slept two-to-a-bed and on mattresses on the floor.
The final option for a pregnant woman, a hospital, should have been the best, but even it lacked staff and basic equipment. Instead of using ultrasound to check the health of a fetus, nurses were forced to place metal cones on a woman’s belly to listen for the faint sound of a tiny heartbeat.
Karwah’s death is the sad result of a healthcare system in which expectant mothers face long odds, in which roughly 1 in 28 women die in the weeks surrounding childbirth. Her compassionate, fearless life is a reminder that none of us have to accept it.
