General News of Friday, 15 June 2018

Source: classfmonline.com

GHS looks into Ridge Hospital ‘missing’ baby saga

A father is doubtful of claims by doctors and nurses that one of his twin babies is dead A father is doubtful of claims by doctors and nurses that one of his twin babies is dead

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has revealed that he has received the report on the alleged missing or dead baby saga at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge Hospital).

He said he will study the document after which the GHS will take its next line of action.

“The report is on my table, I’m at a meeting outside the office, when I go back I will abreast myself of whatever happened then I can have a good discussion about the matter,” he told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class FM’s 505 new programme.

According to Dr Nsiah-Asare, he cannot make any public pronouncement on the issue until he has finished assessing the report.

The affected father who is doubtful of claims by doctors and nurses at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge Hospital) that one of his pre-term twin girls died a few days after delivery, has said the health post must produce the baby’s body “dead or alive”.

Mr John K. Gabulja said after his wife delivered on 10 May 2018, he was told by a midwife that the babies were to be taken to the babies ward for incubation since they were 31 weeks old.

The father-of-twins claims a nurse, whom he only identified as Dede, denied him access to the twins on the day of their delivery despite fulfilling certain pre-conditions, which included making a GHS600 deposit, as demanded by the nurse.

The distraught father said he was only allowed to see his own babies the following day after being forced by the same nurse to buy medicines and clothes for the little ones – also as pre-conditions.

On 14 May, however, Mr Gabulja said he was told by a female doctor during one of his regular visits in the afternoon that they had lost the first twin around 8:30AM.

According to him, no one was able to explain the cause of death since they had earlier confirmed each day he and the wife visited that the twins were healthy.

One doctor, Mr Gabulja said, attempted an explanation which he (Mr Gabulja) found unconvincing.

According to him, their persistent demands for the body of the alleged deceased twin was resisted by the doctors.

Mr Gabulja said one Dr Brako, who was in charge of the babies ward, told him and his wife not to worry about the body of the dead twin but rather concentrate on the living one, since the body would be taken care of by the hospital.

He said Dr Brako even yelled at them at a point and rudely told them to go search for the baby’s body themselves and never to come to him again.

Mr Gabulja said he was recently told, upon further requests for the body, that it cannot be found.

“My wife and I are not convinced that our baby is dead and we are demanding for the body of our child”, Mr Gabulja said.