Story so far…
An expectant 25year old Suweiba
Abdul Mumin who resides in Aboabo, a suburb in the Ashanti Region with her
Husband after what seems to be more than nine months went to the Okomfo Anokye
Teaching Hospital (KATH) to deliver her baby only to deliver a still baby.
According to Nurses who aided her
to deliver, Suweiba was informed about her baby’s death and was subsequently
given the baby to identify its sex and to affirm its death to which she duly
thumb -printed according to normal practice.
The baby was then wrapped away in
a box with other still born babies after which she was dismissed to go home and
later come back to the morgue to collect the dead body for burial. The family
arrived afterwards only to find out that there was no baby either dead or alive
and that was when the family of the sorrowful Suweiba and authorities of KATH
realized that the baby and two other babies were not taken to the morgue which
attracted a demonstration from an irate youth from the Aboabo Zongo in
solidarity with Suweiba.
According to Sources, a new male
orderly only identified as Mormen, who is in the grips of the Police, took the
baby away. Meanwhile, Kwame Frimpong, a Public Relations Officer of the
Hospital, says orderlies are only supposed to be cleaning the wards and not
disposing off babies or conveying them to the morgue.
In the wake of the demonstration
which resulted in a doctor and several other nurses being assaulted, the
Ministry of Health has come out to issue an ultimatum for the hospital to
produce the babies which has been condemned by the Ghana Medical Association.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
According to informed sources I
intimated with from the Hospital, when babies are born, they are placed on
their mothers’ stomach for affirmation of its sex and state of health and if
found to be alive, are placed in a box and similarly when babies die, they are
tagged with the name of their mothers and placed into a bin to be taken away by
the morgue men for identification and collection afterwards.
Deductively, the morgue men went
skiing in Alaska and left no other than the new male orderly at
post to man
duties and when the much touted unkempt and drunken orderly was confronted as
to where Suweiba’s baby was, he pointed out that he placed the box of baby in
an incinerator to be burnt. But when they went to the incinerator, there was no
charred baby which is a cause to worry because burnt bodies do not dissipate into
thin air.
MATTERS ARISING
What is the state of security in
the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital such that no trace of the incident was captured
on camera systems or by Eye-Witnesses?
Where were the nurses who were
supposed to be on duty and why would someone allow the orderly to pick the box
of baby if that was not part of his job description?
Is there a breakdown in the
structure of the Teaching Hospital which would be a faux pas for such an
essential service provider considering the fact that a life saving profession
such as theirs should be mindful of mistakes because of how fatal it can get
when lives are involved.
If there was no charred body in
the incinerator then chances are that the purported still baby has been taken
away but how did that happen?
All odds may be for Mormen the
orderly, but he couldn’t possibly walk into the ward where the box of baby was
placed, whisk it past the nurses and the many activities that go on therein to
successfully take the baby out of the hospital’s premises without being found
out. Methinks so many people are involved.
If the spate of baby loss is to
go by, then chances are that there is a baby stealing syndicate who only deny
mothers with propensity to thumbprint their babies and this must not be
tolerated. It discriminates against illiterate folks and considering the number
of illiterate kinsmen that abounds, we have to gravely frown against it.
Has the Ghana Medical Association
come out to condemn the Ministry of health for its 14days ultimatum directive
for the Teaching Hospital to produce the baby simply because casualty befalls every
work?
People die every day without
their bodies being found out so what is the big deal about the loss of a
stillborn?
Big deal is, there are modalities
per the policies governing the entire working unit and in the foregoing where
three babies are missing thus denying families of their joy of parenthood and
the privilege of welcoming new members into their fold, thorough and
independent investigations should be commissioned to get to the root of this
gaffe.
It should beat your mind why state
institutions commissioned to take care of people’s needs of which they implored
to be employed takes things for granted as though they are doing us a favor.
This is the time for every onlooker to get involved to drive this message home
to everyone out there that it is time to do the right things right or be
sanctioned.
And since it has become our call
to watch each other’s back in the absence of these politically incorrect Human
Rights Activists and the adhoc movements who like to tag themselves as Friends
of this and that, we all have to with one accord sympathize with Suweiba and
family because WE MUST FIND THE BABY!
And this is a call to all parents
out there who knows the joy of parenthood and Suweiba’s shoe size even without
wearing it and the rest of us who are yet to have babies. Let us all get
involved!
Disclaimer: Images may not be the true representation of the Nurses involved in the story.
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