Suspicion surrounds the death of Dr. A.G.H. Afful, a retired Captain of the 37 Military Hospital, and it is threatening to tear his family apart.
Dr. Afful died in July, but his children from four different wives, and other relatives are at each others throats over the possible cause of death.
A source close to the family told The Accra Mail that the suspicion set in when his wife Stella kept important pre-interment procedures to herself and in took unilateral decisions without the knowledge of the children. She also tried to deny them access to the body.
The post-mortem itself was performed surreptitiously because the family was not informed about the exact day on which it was going to be done, though they had demanded to know earlier. The family was allegedly represented by one Mr. Amponsah, a laboratory technician with the 37 Military Hospital who also does part time at the deceased's clinic, but is no relation of the deceased.
With the children losing out on their demand to be present on the day of the post-mortem, they went ahead to seek the pathologist's report on the cause of death. A close relation who managed to see the report indicated that Dr. Afful had suffered a brain haemorrhage. And a picture of the body, which The Accra Mail managed to see, showed a deep puncture to the left side of the head.
His wife Stella is alleged to have told one of the deceased's children that he complained about irregular breathing before his death.
Attempts to meet some of the children who have flown in from London were not possible as they are yet to get over the pain of losing their father in such mysterious circumstances, according to a family source.
The source recounted how the children eventually got their father's corpse for burial. He said one of his children went to talk to a ward master at the military hospital and based on her resemblance to the late Dr. Afful, he overrode earlier instructions and allowed them access to the body.
The recovery of the body and the subsequent burial at Cape Coast notwithstanding, the children insist there was foul play and are demanding the post mortem report which Stella is allegedly refusing to release.
Stella, it has also been learnt, refused to turn up for the family meetings on the funeral arrangements and the burial. The Accra Mail has reliably learnt that the children are seeking legal advice as to how to lay hands on the post mortem report.
The late Dr. Afful benefited from a military scholarship to study medicine in Russia and on his return, was posted to Takoradi where he worked in the Air force Medical Centre before being transferred to the 37 Military Hospital. He retired from the military in 1987 and worked at the All Soul's Clinic, Tudu, Accra before setting up his own clinic, the White Eagle Clinic at the Sakumono Estate Junction, which he operated with Stella before his death.
Ebo, as he was fondly called, married Madam Magdalene Fanny Winful with whom he had six children. At Takoradi he married a second wife Madam Anna Araba Eshun with whom he had four children and had two more children with another woman, Agnes Ofori Tawia. In Accra he married Madam Stella Afful nee Osekere of Teshie, a nurse with whom he run his clinic.
