‘They Facebooked on their phones while she was dying in pain’ – Woman whose sister died at Central Aflao Hospital

Nurses of today have little regard for human life; they are only fascinated by how they look in their uniform and the salary they receive at the end of the month, Ms Abigail Adua, the sister of a 38-year-old patient who died recently at the Central Aflao Hospital in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region, has said.

She said her sister, Linda Adua, died because the two nurses on duty at the hospital at the time, insisted the now-deceased patient pay cash instead of e-money before she could be given any health care, even though she was admitted to the facility at about 4 am on 11 April 2023 when no mobile money vendors were around.

Ms Abigail Adua narrated to Class91.3FM’s regional correspondent Kingsley Atitsogbui that her sister, who does not like talking, pleaded with the nurses that her 19-year-old son, Nii Jerry Tetteh, would go out and withdraw the money for payment when day broke but “they refused”.

“They said, ‘No’; they want physical cash before they can take care of her’”.

“My sister was begging them [but] they said, ‘no’”, she recalled.

She said Linda’s son later had to trek from the hospital to Avoeme Junction before getting a motorbike to take him to the Aflao Border, about two kilometres from the hospital, in search of a mobile money merchant but to no avail.

All that while, she said her sister was not attended to, by the two nurses who were preoccupied by their phones, as they scrolled on Facebook. “They didn’t even mind her”.

She said: “It was later on that one lady, who is Christy, told my sister’s son to push the mother to the ward, so, she showed the son where the ward is … the boy wheeled his mother to the bed, so, the mother sat on the bed and the boy went to them and complained that the mother was complaining of difficulty in breathing, so, they should come and give her oxygen and the nurses came, the two of them came and when they came, my sister said: ‘I can’t breathe, please, give me oxygen; please take care of me, tomorrow morning, early in the morning, we will give you money. I’m still here. I’ll not go anywhere. You people should take care of me’. And the lady nurse said: ‘Madam, you are disturbing us, what is it?’”

The Daily Graphic newspaper also reported that Linda later asked the son to assist her to the washroom, but she fell on the way.

“It was at that point that another patient in the ward, who witnessed the whole incident, rushed out to inform the nurses about what had happened. The nurse, apparently sensing danger, told Linda’s son to get a taxi and take her to the Ketu South Municipal Hospital as her situation was beyond their capacity,” she said.

Abigail said the son rushed to get the taxi as his mother remained motionless, and by the time he got back to the hospital with the taxi, the mother had been put on a stretcher, and wheeled from the ward to the entrance of the hospital.

She said the nurses asked the young man to sit in the taxi, as they pushed the motionless body of his mother into the taxi, with her head resting on his laps, and instructed him to take her to the Ketu South Municipal Hospital without a referral note or an accompanying officer.

“Just upon arrival at the Ketu South Municipal Hospital, Linda was pronounced dead by the medical staff who said they were sure she had died several minutes before being brought to their facility at about 7:40 a.m,” she said.

Abigail Adua complained to Kingsley Atitsogbui that “nurses are trained to save lives but now, the modern nurses that we have are not trained to save lives, they are only proud of the dress and their salary”.

She advised nurses of today to “take their work seriously”, adding: “Whenever a patient is brought to the hospital, they should quickly rush and take care of the person. The person will not run. Even if the person doesn’t have physical cash and has mobile money, they should take the mobile money because now mobile money has come to stay with us”.

Linda’s family has subsequently petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo, the Minister of Health, the Ghana Health Service and the Medical and Dental Council, for justice.

The Medical and Dental Council and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) have responded to the petition and dispatched a team of investigators to the hospital to probe the matter.

Dr Gabrielle Kojo, the Medical Director of the Aflao Central Hospital, also known as Nkansah Hospital, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that a team from the GHS was in the hospital to investigate the matter.

“The police have summoned us to release the nurses involved for interrogation on the matter, which we have done,” he said.

Dr Makafui Dagbasu, the Medical Director of the Ketu South Municipal Hospital, the main referral centre of the municipality, also confirmed that the hospital was currently being investigated over the subject.

Linda’s son recently gained admission to pursue a degree programme at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Her now-deceased mother was his only source of financial support.

The family are demanding the hospital take up the cost of the funeral of the patient and also cater to the needs of Linda’s son.