St. Augustine’s College: Dead student had sickle cell disease

The housemaster of John's House at St. Augustine’s College in Cape Coast in the Central Region, Kofi Mensah Entsuah, has debunked assertions that the death of a student there Saturday was because he was refused permission to seek medical attention.

According to Mr Entsuah, the deceased, Ali Foat, was a sickle cell patient who was taken ill shortly after a late night jam. He was a member of a group called G Club that performed till 10pm on Saturday, July 2.

He added that the deceased failed to make a total disclosure of his health condition to the doctor when he was rushed to the hospital around 1am after complaining of waist and chest pains.

Mr Entsuah told Class News Ali was doing well despite the pains and visited the hospital again upon the request of the doctor, who disclosed there was more to his sickness than just the chest pains.

“The school authorities only discovered he was a sickle cell patient after he had seen the doctor again, but apart from his chest pains he was in good condition. He could talk, he could eat, he could do anything,” he said, adding: “Being a sickle cell [patient] is the actual problem that caused his death and has nothing to do with the refusal of an exeat.”

Mr Entsuah also denied that Ali may have died because he was bathing cold water instead of hot water.

"It is also not true that he died because of lack of hot water for bathing. Being a sickle cell patient, he could have gotten hot water from the pantry if he wanted,” he stressed.