Family calls for inquest into son’s death after Atua hospital, ambulance delays

The family of a 21-year-old man is calling for an inquest into his death after personnel of the National Ambulance Service arrived some 18 hours after the family was informed by personnel on duty at the Atua Government Hospital of arrangements to transfer him to the Eastern Regional Hospital at Koforidua for further medical attention.

The family cataloged a series of negligence and delays by the hospital and further delays and unexplained stoppages by the ambulance en route to Koforidua, arguing that had crews arrived earlier, their son may not have died.

Further, the family is raising questions over the facility’s failure to administer oxygen to the patient at the hospital, the shortage of the element in the ambulance during the transfer, and the absence of a nurse on the trip, suggesting that these possibly contributed to his demise.

Teye Zachariah, a former student of the Akro Senior High Technical School passed on at the Eastern Regional Hospital on Monday, 21st August 2023, an hour after he was transferred to the facility from the Atua Government Hospital.

Detailing the circumstances leading to the demise of her son, the mother of the deceased, Madam Flora Angmorkuor Azu said her son who resided at Dawhenya in the Greater Accra Region, arrived home at Odumase-Krobo on Thursday, 17th August, 2023 over ill-health.

After little improvements in Zachariah’s condition following three days of home treatments, he was on Sunday, 20th August, 2023 sent to the St. Martin’s Hospital at Agomanya but was subsequently referred same day to Atua as his condition further deteriorated.

At Atua, the family said despite being informed around 4 pm of intentions to transfer their kinsman to Koforidua for further medical attention, the ambulance only arrived at 10 am on Monday, 18 hours after they were first informed.

According to the mother of the deceased, several attempts to seek answers from personnel on duty over the delays in getting an ambulance did not yield any results.

“After waiting for several hours, I enquired from the hospital staff again on Sunday night as to when the ambulance was arriving and they responded that there was no ambulance in this huge health facility so they were going to call one for me. A gentleman called the service and gave the phone to me and they said they’d charge me Ghc450,” she recalled.

Arguing that her son should've been transferred immediately, she stressed, "As a government hospital, I expect a patient to be moved immediately there's a need for transfer.”

On the way, she said, "They changed one of the cylinders and replaced it with theirs and we continued but the driver continued to stop along the road."

According to her, the vehicle stopped three more times for unexplained mechanical checks.

Though there was a medic from the ambulance service on board the ambulance, the family is questioning why no nurse accompanied them.

Ambulance service’s response

Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Director of the National Ambulance Service, AEMT Kennedy Mensah, absolving the Service of any faults explained that the service was called at 08:53 Monday morning and made its way to the facility within 30mins.

He also attributed the recurrent stoppages of the ambulance to mechanical challenges experienced by the vehicle.

“Per the records we have here, our people were dispatched around 8:53 am (Monday) and you know…it’s a vehicle we’re using, anything can happen on the way, what they were saying was that the car had to stop along the way, the driver told me that when they were going they realized that the gears were not changing so along the way, he had to stop and change it on the gear-box,” he defended.

Explaining the processes involved in filling the ambulance cylinders with oxygen, AEMT Kennedy Mensah while admitting that the ambulance moved with low oxygen however noted that it is standard practice within the service to fall on nearby ambulances for oxygen supply in cases of shortage.

According to him, all ambulances in the region fill the gas cylinders at the regional capital and an ambulance with a low or empty cylinder could not drive to Koforidua with the sole aim of filling a cylinder as this is only done when cases are brought there.

AEMT Mensah said, “We normally fill our oxygen in Koforidua…if we have a case in Koforidua and we go then we fill…you can’t drive an empty car to Koforidua that you’re going to fill oxygen and come back.”

Meanwhile, the administrator of the Atua government hospital, Mr. Victor Owusu when contacted said he was in consultations with the family to abreast himself with the details of their complaints to enable him to speak on the matter.