Lack of hospital beds cause father to lose son

A businessman, James Essel who lives at Kasoa Amanfrom has narrated his frustration at getting medical attention for his 19-year-old level 300 student who died in his hands after paramedics at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Korle-Bu Polyclinic refused to pay prompt attention to his dying son.

Tearful James Essel stormed the offices of DAILY GUIDE yesterday and said that he was utterly surprised at the way doctors at Korle-Bu who had earlier done surgical operation on his son refused to attend to him when he developed complications even before he was due for his first medical review.

According to Mr Essel, his son, Ernest Essel, a student of Ghana Telecom University suddenly complained of having serious problems with his eyesight and when checks were done on him it was realised that he had a brain tumor so they took him to Korle-Bu for operation in August, this year.

Mr Essel said that after the operation was successfully carried out he was discharged in late September, this year after almost two months on admission.

According to the grieving father, after nearly two weeks when his son was due for his first medical review, he bitterly complained of headache so he was immediately taken back to Korle-Bu.

“It was a Sunday, I think October 9 and I had to rush my son to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital straight to the Surgical Ward and was later directed to the Emergency Unit,” he said pointing out that immediately he arrived at the Emergency Ward, he pleaded with them to attend to his son who was in a critical condition.

He claimed that after being tossed up and down, he was told the son’s folder could not be traced.

He alleged that, later one Dr Mawuli who was part of the group of doctors who operated on his son told him that his son could not be admitted again because of lack of bed so he should send him to the Korle-Bu Polyclinic.

He said at the Polyclinic too, the authorities said they could not attend to his son due to lack of beds.

“I had to go back to see Dr Mawuli to tell him about the situation but he advised me to rather send my son to the 37 Military Hospital but without the folder”.

According to him, he rushed the son to the 37 Military Hospital where the son did not have any medical history so he was asked to go for another folder.

“When I arrived, I was expecting the doctors to first attend to my son before asking for the folder because of his critical condition but these people did not mind me and for about 30 minutes my son was in my car dying before he was later attended to after the folder had been prepared but it was too late”.

Mr Essel lamented that he did not understand why a big hospital like Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital did not provide an ambulance to transfer his son to 37 with a nurse who could have facilitated things faster at 37 without the folder.

“This cannot happen abroad because I have lived in the UK for sometime. An emergency is an emergency and it should be treated with all the urgency it needed,” he said adding that he is so much devastated by the loss of his son after spending about GH¢40,000 on his illness.

He said what annoys him most was that when he went back to Korle Bu after the death of son to see if his folder had been found, he was only comforted by the doctors who asked him to go and complain to the head of administration about lack of beds at the hospital because many people have died as a result of lack of beds at the hospital.

“My only concern is about how doctors attend to emergency cases at our hospitals and this should be checked,” he said stressing that his son was a brilliant chap who was a treasure to him but has just lost him because of supposed ‘unprofessional’ attitude of doctors.