Wednesday 30 July 2014

Photos : Ebola Victim Patrick Sawyer was on his way home to celebrate daughter's birthday in America

Patrick Sawyer and wife

The Ebola victim (Patrick Sawyer, 40) from Liberia who sparked fears of the 'Ebola' outbreak in Lagos, was actually an American. He was planning to return home to Coon Rapids, Minnesota, to be reunited with hischildren for two of his daughters' birthdays in August.

Patrick and his wife, are originally from Liberia and have family in the US and West Africa.

Back home in Minnesota, his devastated wife, Decontee is reeling from the news that her husband has passed away.

'I have three daughters who will never get to know their father,' Decontee Sawyer said in an interview with the Pioneer Press.

Recalling her husband, Decontee said he was 'larger than life' and that she is stills shocked that someone so strong could have their life ended so suddenly.

Sawyer, who worked for the Liberian Finance Ministry married his wife Decontee in December 2008, in Coon Rapids.

The couple, who both hold US citizenship are originally from Liberia and Decontee arrived in the country with her family in 1991 and Patrick came in the early 2000s.

The couple are part of the large Liberian community in Minnesota, who moved there in the aftermath of the nation's two civil wars in the 1980s and late 1990s.

His job had taken him back to West Africa to promote economic development there and he was last in the United States in September said Decontee.

His long absences away from home had become common and before he boarded the plane to Lagos last week he had been caring for a sister who was ill with what was revealed to be Ebola, although according to Decontee, he and his family did not know that at the time....he didn't know!

Decontee learned he was ill with Ebola on Thursday and then on Friday she was told her husband of six years had passed away from the virus.

Distraught, Decontee said that she had come forward to share her husband's fate so that the public can understand how quickly the virus can spread.

See more photos of him and his daughters below:




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