A prison inmate whose life was saved with my inhaler now in Germany – Tsatsu Tsikata

Legal practitioner Tsatsu Tsikata has in giving an account of the severe asthmatic attack he suffered in jail at the Nsawam Prison, revealed how an act of kindness nearly cost him his life.

Tsatsu was an inmate of the Nsawam Prison after being found guilty of causing financial loss to the state by an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Henrietta Abban.

The former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission was jailed on June 18, 2008, for his role in a loan facility the GNPC guaranteed for Valley Farms, a private cocoa-growing company.

Tsatsu said on Pan African TV that a day before he experienced his attack, a prisoner came to him to plead for help for another inmate who was under attack.

Tsatsu says he gave the inmate his inhaler despite being aware of the dangers.

“The day that I ended up being taken out of prison with [an] asthmatic attack. The day before that, one of the prisoners came to me and said that a prisoner has a bad asthma attack and if there was something I could do to help with medication.

“By then, my wife had brought me a new inhaler. A much stronger one than my inhaler. As soon as he said, I gave it to him and by evening I had my own attack which was beyond the Ventolin inhaler.

“By morning, the situation clearly was dangerous. I could have died, it was that dangerous. The director then was feeling so helpless because they took me to Nsawam Hospital, they couldn’t manage the situation. There [was] to be an evacuation to Korle Bu or 37 or wherever.

“It was my wife who had to organize [an] ambulance from Koforidua to come to Nsawam because there was no ambulance anywhere. And first to 37 and they realized that the ICU could probably not handle the situation so they took me to Korle Bu,” he narrated.

Tsatsu Tsikata, however, felt some sense of fulfilment after he learnt of the impact of his act of kindness ten years on.

"The good news is that I was able to have medical attention and thank God I’m still alive. That also meant, the prisoner was also saved and can you believe that ten years from the day that I went to prison, we went with Pastor Jones and a medical team to do a medical outreach?

"A prisoner walks to me and ask do you remember me? I’m the one who came for that inhaler to give to the person who had [an] asthmatic attack. That person is always grateful to you because his life was saved, he came out of prison and now he is in Germany. And he can’t stop recalling that inhaler moment. That is why I say that they might mean it for evil but God meant it for good," he said.