My son is not dead – Suwaiba

Suwaiba Abdul Mumuni, the 36-year-old Muslim woman who resides at Aboabo, a suburb of Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, whose baby was said to have died under mysterious circumstances at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), is still brimming with confidence that her son is still alive.

Barely one month after the incident, which attracted national attention, Suwaiba believed that her baby boy was still alive and she would be reunited with him very soon.

Visit To Aboabo

When DAILY GUIDE visited the Aboabo Number Two, home of Suwaiba on Thursday afternoon, scores of people, including elderly Zongo women, had converged on the place.

Suwaiba, who already has a nine-year-old girl, was seen seated in a pensive mood and intermittently shedding tears as she was being consoled by the elderly women.

She initially found it extremely difficult to open up to DAILY GUIDE when the paper asked for an interview about her ‘dead’ baby. The elderly women had to convince her to talk before she finally opened up.

Pregnancy Days

Suwaiba disclosed that she was pregnant for 10 months and five days so she was referred to KATH from a private health centre by name, Auntie Amina Private Hospital at Sawaba in Kumasi.

According to her, she visited KATH at the dawn of February 6 this year, where she met the doctor on duty around 3:00 pm, saying that before then, she began experiencing some labour pains, which she informed the doctor about.

Delivery

Suwaiba said she was later taken to the Labour Ward after she was informed by the KATH staff on duty that her time was due. According to her, she finally delivered safely the following day at 3:00 am.

She maintained that after the delivery the nurse on duty told her that she had a baby boy, and the baby was weighed and then taken to where new-borns were kept.

Death News

Suwaiba said she was relaxing in bed at the ward when the nurse came back to inform her that her baby had died, but according to her, the nurse did not show the body of her supposedly dead baby to her.

She alleged further that the nurse on duty brought some documents and made her to thumbprint to confirm that her baby had passed on, “although I did not see the dead body.”

According to her, her mother, Imma Fati, who visited the hospital the following morning, demanded for the body of the supposedly deceased baby but the hospital authorities could not produce it.

Legal Action

Suwaiba told this reporter that when she informed her husband -who is currently in Cameroon -about the sad news, he nearly collapsed on phone, and vowed to contest the case in court when he returned to Ghana.

Suwaiba said her husband was planning to return to the country soon to start a legal battle in court.

Baby Alive

With a lot of confidence, she stressed that her baby was still alive and that definitely she would reconcile with her baby very soon saying, “My son is not dead; he is still alive.”

Asked why she still believed that her son was alive, Suwaiba retorted, “They did not show the dead body to me. Besides, since that time they have not been able to produce the body. This shows that my baby is alive.”

Suwaiba stated that she is a staunch Muslim and had been praying hard to Allah in recent times, expressing the hope that the investigations by the police would lead to the discovery of her ‘dead’ baby.

Appetite

She told this paper that since the incident occurred, she had lost appetite for food and had been having sleepless nights. “I think too much lately, I just can’t forget about the case,” she pointed out. She added that it was having an adverse effect on her health and commended the public for the support that she had enjoyed so far.

Ultimatum

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has given the authorities of Komfo Anokye 14 working days to produce the baby dead or alive - which ends next week.

The case had generated several controversies, prominent among them being the invasion of KATH by irate Zongo youth who manhandled staffers of the Teaching Hospital, including doctors and nurses.

The wild attack, which sent shivers down the spine of workers of the hospital, influenced the decision of the KATH staff, mostly, doctors and nurses, to embark on a strike action for some days. The hospital’s staff complained bitterly that KATH was not a safe place for them to work.

In an attempt to woo the striking doctors and nurses to return to work, the hospital’s management, led by Prof. Ohene Adjei, KATH CEO, engaged the services of a joint military/police team who have been providing security at the hospital.

It took the timely intervention of the Ashanti Regional Minister, Eric Opoku and the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Alfred Tia Sugri, for the irate staffers of the hospital to return to work.

Currently, the Ashanti Regional Police Command, led by DCOP Kofi Boakye, who is investigating the case, had charged seven staff members of KATH in connection with the saga.

The AG’s Department is currently studying the case to determine what action to take next.