When Michael’s doctor tried to explain the reason for the visit, highlighting that it was an emergency, the response was:
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Inside Story of Kekeli: How Ghana’s health system failed a mother who lost her 13-year-old
“There’s a changeover. We don’t have anybody here to run the CT scan. You have to take him back,” Michael Kofi Asiamah’s mother watched in disbelief as technicians could not empathise with his son.
Inside Story of Kekeli: How Ghana’s health system failed a mother who lost her 13-year-old
“Please, please I don’t want to listen to anything. I don’t want to hear anything”.
The 13-year-old had gone through so much pain during his transit for the CT scan. Michael family had been forced by circumstances beyond their control to push him on a bed for the scan instead of an ambulance due to the urgent nature of the task at hand.
It was not an easy journey for a young boy who had undergone surgery. He made his mother know he was in a lot of pain, his head was aching and felt dizzy. But there was no other way out.
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So, being asked to go back without the scan was troubling for both Cordelia Ama Selormey, Michael’s mother and the doctor who she had come with.
The fact that they were being rude about it compounded the problem, especially with how sensitive their service provision was. The lab technicians had one reason for their inability to perform Michaels urgent scan. The excuse was that the technician running the CT scan and MRI was tired and waiting for a changeover.
Michael Kofi Asiamah
Pulse Ghana
However, when another call was placed to the lab, things immediately changed. Next minute somebody came in and took Michael in to take the scan.
“So, if you don’t know anybody or the doctors do not go the extra mile, chances that you’re fighting a lost battle is very high,” Cordelia Ama Selormey said of her experience.
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“Because why should a doctor put so much effort for a CT scan to be run on a patient?
“It wasn’t free. It was not free. It was almost 500 Ghana Cedis. It was not free. They were not doing us a favour. We were paying for the service.
“And even the way they will talk to you is so painful. It was as if they are actually rendering you a favour.”
This was not the first time Ghana’s health system and processes had dealt Cordelia a tough blow. Her initial experience had been one common and familiar to many Ghanaians - the no-bed syndrome.
Having shown signs of a need for urgent medical attention, Michael had been sent to the hospital after vomiting and complaints of headache.
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The first diagnosis was that he had a bacterial infection. After some medication, he was OK for some time until the symptoms came back again.
After speaking to a doctor, she was asked to bring him for a thorough investigation. On their way for the test, Michael started vomiting which required emergency attention with him being rushed in an ambulance, a situation Cordelia describes as ‘scary’.
Upon arrival, the doctors at Korle Bu explained to Michael’s mother that he could not be admitted since there was no bed but only chairs.
Since he had a brain issue, the doctors explained they could not put him in a chair. The only option was for the ambulance driver to leave his stretcher for Michael to use as a bed. The driver agreed and they put Michael in the emergency area at Korle Bu lying on the stretcher.
“They put him in the waiting area on the emergency side of Korle Bu. He was lying down there. Around him, people were in chairs who were taking drips. And he was literally the only one on the stretcher because the ambulance driver decided to leave the stretcher for him,” Cordelia narrated.
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Michael and his mother got to Korle Bu around 11 am for an emergency healthcare delivery. However, it took Michael 4 hours to get a space at the emergency section before going to the theatre for the surgery 3 hours later.
“The doctors did not let us down but the system did,” Michael’s mother emphatically states as she sheds tears looking back at the death of her 13-year-old son.
“The doctors worked round the clock. If I had left my son’s bed for a second, if I wasn’t there, if I didn’t spend those two weeks with him, I would probably have said there was negligence.
Pulse on medical negligence in Ghana
Pulse Ghana
“But there was no time the doctors wouldn’t come and check. They’re working round the clock.”
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Michaels mother throws back to how she even felt bad for the doctors who could not even catch some sleep, seeing them every hour at the hospital responding to patients’ need.
Despite having a successful surgery, the aftercare which was not helped by the neurosurgical department of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital having only four ICU bed which meant Michael had to be taken off for another patient.
Then there is the stressful commute of having an MRI after surgery outside of Korle Bu due to the complicated nature and processes that could cause unnecessary delay. Or the fact that doctors owned some of the equipment needed for minimal invasion and not the hospital - a situation that sets up for a potential overload of a patient to equipment or procedure needed.
Looking back, the process and systems were not in the favour of the patient and his mother, even sometimes the doctors. This is a system that needs investment and overhauling, a system that needs attention.
Ghana’s health system fails many every day. And it failed Cordelia and her son Michael - a story of how a mother lost her 13-year-old son.
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The transcription in this story was from an interview by Citi FM and Citi TV.
This story is part of a Pulse campaign on medical negligence. #SaveOurPulse #PulseOnMedicalNegligence
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