It can be exhausting nursing a child through a nasty bout with the flu , so imagine how 22-year-old Fatu Kekula felt nursing her entire family through Ebola . Her father . Her mother . Her sister . Her cousin . Fatu took care of them all , single-handedly feeding them , cleaning them and giving them medications . And she did so with remarkable success . Three out of her four patients survived . That 's a 25 % death rate -- considerably better than the estimated Ebola death rate of 70 % . Fatu stayed healthy , which is noteworthy considering that more than 300 health care workers have become infected with Ebola , and she did n't even have personal protection equipment -- those white space suits and goggles used in Ebola treatment units . Instead Fatu , who 's in her final year of nursing school , invented her own equipment . International aid workers heard about Fatu 's `` trash bag method '' and are now teaching it to other West Africans who ca n't get into hospitals and do n't have protective gear of their own . Every day , several times a day for about two weeks , Fatu put trash bags over her socks and tied them in a knot over her calves . Then she put on a pair of rubber boots and then another set of trash bags over the boots . She wrapped her hair in a pair of stockings and over that a trash bag . Next she donned a raincoat and four pairs of gloves on each hand , followed by a mask . It was an arduous and time-consuming process , but Fatu was religious about it , never cutting corners . UNICEF Spokeswoman Sarah Crowe said Fatu is amazing . `` Essentially this is a tale of how communities are doing things for themselves , '' Crowe said . `` Our approach is to listen and work with communities and help them do the best they can with what they have . '' Two doctors for 85,000 people . She emphasized , of course , that it would be better for patients to be in real hospitals with doctors and nurses in protective gear -- it 's just that those things are n't available to many West Africans . No one knows that better than Fatu . Her Ebola nightmare started Juy 27 , when her father , Moses , had a spike in blood pressure . She took him to a hospital in their home city of Kakata . A bed was free because a patient had just passed away . What no one realized at the time was that the patient had died of Ebola . One woman walked in , and the Ebola nightmare began . Moses , 52 , developed a fever , vomiting and diarrhea . Then the hospital closed down because nurses started dying of Ebola . Fatu took her father to Monrovia , the capital city , about a 90-minute drive via difficult roads . Three hospitals turned him away because they were full . She took him back to another hospital in Kakata . They said he had typhoid fever and did little for him , so Fatu took him home , where he infected three other family members : Fatu 's mother , Victoria , 57 ; Fatu 's sister , Vivian , 28 , and their 14-year-old cousin who was living with them , Alfred Winnie . Guilty of Ebola until proven otherwise . While operating her one-woman Ebola hospital for two weeks , Fatu consulted with their family doctor , who would talk to her on the phone , but would n't come to the house . She gave them medicines she obtained from the local clinic and fluids through intravenous lines that she started . At times , her patients ' blood pressure plummeted so low she feared they would die . `` I cried many times , '' she said . `` I said 'God , you want to tell me I 'm going to lose my entire family ? ' `` But her father , mother , and sister rallied and were well on their way to recovery when space became available at JFK Medical Center on August 17 . Alfred never recovered , though , and passed away at the hospital the next day . `` I 'm very , very proud , '' her father said . `` She saved my life through the almighty God . '' Now he 's working to find a scholarship for Fatu so she can finish her final year of nursing school . He has no doubt his daughter will go on to save many more people during her life . `` I 'm sure she 'll be a great giant of Liberia , '' he said . Ebola patients left to lay on the ground .
Fatu Kekula , 22 , nursed four family members infected with Ebola . She was the only one to survive and now lives in a hospital in Liberia where she is being treated for her illness. Her protection method is being taught to others in West Africa .