Doctors at 37 Military Hospital told me my husband was fine - Amissah-Arthur's wife recounts

More than a year since the demise of the former Vice President, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, his widow has opened up on the exact happenings which led to his death, ABC News can report.

Matilda Amissah-Arthur has disclosed that she was assured by doctors at the 37 Military Hospital that her husband, late Vice President, was doing well and that there was nothing to worry about after all indicators pointed to the positive.

She narrated that when they got to the 37 Military Hospital, the late Vice President was immediately sent to the Emergency Ward for urgent attention but minutes later he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit.

She recounted that Doctors at the Hospital declared him sound after checking his vitals immediately he was rushed to the hospital and advised that she returned home to give him space to recover fully.

Not even pressure from her son, and a cousin, who are doctors, as well as a doctor from Ridge Hospital who joins them at the gym, was enough to convince her to leave the premises of the Hospital.

Detailing the sequence of events to David Ampofo on ‘Time with David’, the wife of the late Vice President averred, “We got there, they took him to emergency, checked his pulse, his bp, everything was okay so they transferred him from emergency to ICU. My son had come, my cousin the doctor had come, so there were 5 doctors there.”

“About 5 minutes later they came to me and said everything is okay and he needs to be stabilised and that we were not helping matters by standing there and chatting and so on and that I should go home and come in the afternoon.”

“My son said I should go home and I said I won’t go home. So the doctor Naa, the one from Ridge, said to me, mummy you just go home, I will come for you in the afternoon.”

Matilda Amissah-Arthur pointed out to David Ampofo that she suspected something had gone wrong when Naa, the doctor from Ridge Hospital, came out from the unit and went another way instead of approaching them in the vehicle where they sat.

Out of shock, she requested an autopsy to be done to ascertain the cause of death because she had been assured of his safety and wellbeing, ABC News can report.

“So we left and went and sat in the car, about 40 minutes after I saw the doctor, Naa, came out of intensive care and go another way. So I said to the lady I was sitting with that there was something wrong because Naa didn’t call me.”

“I got in and I was told my husband was no more” she stated noting that, “I said to the doctor, I wanted a post-mortem. I wanted a postmortem because they had said pressure, pulse they had checked and everything was okay. So I was very surprised at what had happened.”

“The post-mortem results came, it didn’t say anything then people came with all kinds of conspiracy theories” the former Vice President’s widow divulged.

After news of his demise became public, several reports claimed that the late Amissah-Arthur was conveyed to the Hospital in the bucket of a pickup while others mentioned that he died at the hospital after minutes of not being attended to.

But clarifying the circumstances leading to his death, Matilda Amissah-Arthur, disclosed that after they got to the gym that Friday morning, “He did his exercises, we were almost through, he went on the cross-trainer being the last exercise that he will do and then he collapsed.”

“There was a doctor, who is a member of the gym, Dr Naa Tagoe of Ridge Hospital, so she rushed and resuscitated him, checked his pulse, everything and said we should go to the 37 Military Hospital.”

“We went in a Benz, the doctor and this officer (senior military officer at the Hospital) said if we put him at the back of the benz, it’s so short that we will have to cramp him. So I have a pickup a double cabin pickup, let’s put him on the second seat of the double cabin and let the doctor (Naa Tagoe) sit with him and I (Matilda Amissah-Arthur) go with somebody else” she narrated, suggesting that at the time they left the gym, he was conscious and well.

Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur served as Vice President of Ghana to Former President Mahama. He lost his life on June 29, 2018, at the 37 Military Hospital.