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The brother of a patient who died at Military Hospital 37 is suing the hospital for what he calls “medical negligence”.
Emmanuel Asare Kumah said he was taking this step because the negligence of doctors resulted in the death of his disabled brother, Solomon Asare Kumah, and, to make matters worse, the medical bills were “overstated”.
The deceased’s brother is suing Military Hospital 37 with the Chief of the Defense Staff (CDS), the Attorney General and Colonel Dr Gordon A. Appiah, neurosurgeon at Military Hospital 37 of the Ghana Armed Forces for the wrongful death of his brother.
Recounting the family’s experience before his brother’s death in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on New Day on TV3 on Thursday, September 9, Mr Kumah said he was suing the hospital and the parties joined because he believes there is an ethic that ensures that when a patient goes to a medical facility in the country, they must be diligent in caring for the patient in accordance with their rights.
He said if a patient goes to one of the health facilities and as vulnerable as they are, they are taken advantage of, resulting in their death, then there is a need to take charge of the system so that what happened to this patient does not happen. to anyone else in the country.
Mr Kumah said this was the main motivation for going to court.
He recounted the ordeal his deceased brother suffered at the hands of doctors before his death.
He said their father was sick and in a coma at Korle-Bu University Hospital, so his brother Solomon who lived in the UK came to visit him in Ghana.
Mr Kumah said that when his brother came to Ghana they realized he was not feeling well either, so one day they realized he was not even able to open his eyes. He said they took him to C&J Hospital at Sakumono Estate in Accra with his sister and brother-in-law.
He said the hospital admitted him and gave him a CT scan that detected a tumor on Solomon’s head and therefore sent him to 37 Military Hospital.
He said that due to the challenges they faced at Korle-Bu University Hospital when his father was admitted there, he was relieved that Solomon was referred to 37 Military Hospital for treatment. .
“So when my brother was admitted at 37, the receiving physician was Colonel Appiah and he was the consulting surgeon at the time. So he met the family, in the person of his sister and his brother-in-law. He told them he was going to charge GH ¢ 40,000 for the surgery, explaining that it was an emergency he needed to take care of, ”he told Johnnie Hughes.
Mr Kumah said this happened on Thursday, August 22, 2019, and that they had to pay the GH ¢ 40,000 bill for the operation to be performed on Monday.
He said that Colonel Dr Appiah had pointed out to them that if they were able to provide GH ¢ 25,000 of the total amount, the operation would begin the following Monday.
He said on Sunday that the family had collected the GH ¢ 25,000 and duly paid Colonel Dr Appiah to have the operation started the next day, but on that day the surgeon gave the excuse that he had to postpone the meeting. from Monday August. From September 26 to 2, 2019.
“His explanation was that he didn’t have all the supplies. He needed surgical glue. So I just went to my phone and went google for surgical glue and sent the picture to my sister and my sister also sent it to her to confirm that “this is what you need and he said yes “. So in the United States we just bought it online from a pharmacy and told them we can send it to them ASAP. So he postponed the operation from September 2 to 9, so on September 7 we had someone leaving the United States for Ghana, so the surgical glue was given to the doctor. The one who received it was called Corporal Awumey at Military Hospital 37. So he received this because we had a Reverend Father who was leaving the United States for Ghana. So, at the airport, my sister met him and took him to the hospital, ”he said.
He said that after receiving the surgical glue, they expected Colonel Dr Appiah to start the operation on his brother after he received anesthesia, but the doctor again postponed the operation, claiming that the surgical burr he was going to use was not working.
He said the doctor didn’t even touch his brother because he said the drill wasn’t working, so the operation was aborted even though his brother was administered under anesthesia.
Mr Kumah said Col. Dr Appiah postponed the operation from September 9 to 13 and on September 13 the doctor returned to tell them he was not feeling very well so it is September 16. that he undertook the operation on his sick brother.
But halfway through the operation, when he opened his brother’s head, he again realized that the surgical bur was not working.
He said that at this point the doctor had taken some fatty tissue to use in the surgery, so he plastered the fatty tissue in his head and sutured the head back without removing the tumor and was taken back to the neurology department. .
“So, back in the room, everyone was angry. So when my sister went to the ward with her anger and stuff, she noticed my brother’s leg had swollen, so she alerted the nurses that “hey, my brother’s leg is swollen, what’s up? what is happening? “. Before that we had done a few tests and it was negative so this time after my brother’s leg was swollen and they did the doppler test and they realized he had DVT ( deep vein thrombosis), it is a blood clot. Then we informed the doctor about it and he realized that we had to go to Korle-Bu at the heart center to do what they call an IVC filter so that we could take care of this clot. It costs $ 5,500. You have to pay before they do this procedure and so at the time my sister negotiated with the doctor, ”he said.
He said that when Colonel Dr Appiah realized that they could foot the bill to make the IVC filter, he told them he was going to increase the initial amount by 40,000 GH ¢ because he felt that ‘they had money.
He later said the doctor gave them a receipt for GH ¢ 25,000 paid to him on behalf of another hospital called Victoria Surgical Place.
He said they realized that other clients had had the same experiences as theirs when they lodged a complaint with the military high command because the entire charge was with the doctor.
Mr Kumah said the operation took place after the IVC filter and was taken to the intensive care unit (intensive care unit) at 37 Military Hospital.
He said the doctor had indicated he needed a CT scan, but the CT scan was not working.
They had to go to Sunshine Health Care in the residential area of the airport for the CT scan when a disabled patient was on life support.
He said that amid all the inconvenience they faced in the hospital, they were buying so many drugs that pharmacists started asking if they were being extorted from the hospital.
“We were buying drugs, we were buying intravenous fluids and stuff and if you count, say ten bags, that’s supposed to last you three days, but we were buying double them so they noticed it at the pharmacy. So they printed out a whole list of all the drugs I bought at the pharmacy since we were there. And the cough mixture, for example, we buy a cough mixture today, tomorrow we buy a cough mixture again. So I asked the doctor and she was like they were using the syringe to deliver it through the feeding tube and sometimes it spills over and stuff, I didn’t buy that, ”he said. declared.
He said that at this point he realized that something was going on, so he became vigilant. So, once they said his brother needed blood and he had his old classmates and his Catholic church donate blood, but when the doctor went to get blood for his brother, they gave him blood. said there was no blood, which pissed him off.
He said he started looking for help online and someone gave him a number to call so he could get blood from this person.
He contacted this guy called Awuni in the intensive care unit and he asked for 400 GH ¢ and the next minute Awuni’s guy brought him blood.
“There was a time when my brother had a problem. I went there to visit. I think it was October 20 [2019] and they said the tracheal tube that was connected to it had a problem, so they took it out and sucked it out so that when they fixed it, the fluid went through his skin. And when he went through his skin and they connected him to the ventilator it swelled him up, so when I went there Dr Kuti who was in charge met me with Dr Mariama but the whole time I was in the ICU Dr Mariama was the one I saw, we never saw a specialist or a senior doctor.
“So he said ‘oh when we put the tube in it went through my brother’s skin and when they connected the fan it inflated it so don’t be afraid don’t worry. When I went there and saw my brother his face was swollen but I had seen him the day before and he seemed to be doing better now that he’s all bloated. I was so pissed off so I went home and calmed down, the next day when we went my brother died. When I went there they said my brother had died of cardiac arrest like someone was so naive, ”he alleged.
He pointed out that the doctors had not shown an autopsy report to show his brother had died of cardiac arrest and when he went to the morgue to see his brother they told him they had a meeting so that he could not see it.
He said the day after his brother died, they brought in the bill which had been doubled. He said he had receipts he checked, but the hospital inflated the price.
It comes after a High Court in Accra awarded more than GH ¢ 1 million against the hospital for the death of a pregnant woman.
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