How a Professor of Medicine tested positive for coronavirus

Reverend Professor Adukwei Hesse, the Vice President of the Accra College of Medicine has tested positive for COVID-19.

According to him, he had been adhering to the safety protocols of the novel Coronavirus since Ghana recorded its first two cases in March 2020 until one day, he attended his granddaughter’s birthday party where he had to remove his face mask and eat. Through that process, he suspects he contracted the virus.

Prof. Hesse, who spoke to Accra based Joy FM in a report monitored by GhanaWeb, indicated that his household has also been infected with the virus.

He said since the outbreak, his family has been careful and has even been advocating for people to stay safe and healthy and the need for them to wear their face masks always.

He further indicated that due to the surge of COVID-19 in the country, his family debated whether or not to attend the birthday party.

“So that evening, we had a little debate and asked ourselves whether it [was] worth going to this party at all. Then the social pressure of what the little child will think…so, we masked up as we always do, and went.

“It was an open-air rooftop, near the beach, good breeze party. Then it came to eating and that is where we let our guards down,” Prof Hesse narrated. “We can’t eat and drink without unmasking.”

He added that staying in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was nothing new to him because, in his line of duty, the ICU is a place that he frequents, but this time the feeling was different because this time he was there as a patient who could not “think, pray, or breathe”; he felt restless.

“I saw myself as different from my thoughts, mind, and will to do anything that was not there. To desire water, to desire food, to desire to urinate, to desire anything at all…nothing; you’re just there,” Prof Hesse observed.

He disclosed further: “…all we did was to share air with the other couple…all three of us from this household…we are frightened because hundreds are dying. At the beginning you will have one, two or three [cases] now this is the community.”

Professor Adukwei Hesse, therefore, cautioned Ghanaians to observe the safety protocols outlined by the Government in order to stay safe.