Foday Gallah saw the sick child was distressed and felt he had to do something. So he picked the kid up to comfort him.And with that act of kindness, the 37-year-old ambulance supervisor in Monrovia, Liberia, contracted Ebola himself."Of course, he got vomit all over him and that's how he got Ebola," said photographer Jackie Nickerson, who shot Gallah's image for Time's "Person of the Year" magazine cover, which honors those on the front line of the Ebola epidemic.
They're "the ones who answered the call," the magazine said on its website Wednesday morning.
Nickerson expanded on why Gallah was chosen for one of the magazine's five covers: "He's the shining example of what the right thing to do is. He's a shining example that we should all try to follow. He really did touch me with his story. I don't usually like to use the word hero, but I have to use it here."
According to the latest World Health Organization figures, about 6,300 people have died from the disease, mainly in West Africa. Health workers are still battling more than 11,000 confirmed cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and more than 6,000 suspected and probable cases loom, according to WHO.
No comments:
Post a Comment