Ghanaian medical student studying in Cuba dies

He is reported to have passed away on Friday, May 7, 2021.

The colleagues of the deceased in Cuba blamed the Ghanaian High Commission for his death.

They accused the High Commission of neglecting them.

The students said they are not receiving proper medical treatment from the clinic of the Latin American School of Medicine, the school in which they are studying.

A member of the 10-member NUGS executive committee in Cuba, Eugene Oko Richman, narrating what happened in an interview on Accra-based Class FM on Monday, May 10, 2021, said they lost one of their colleagues because the Cuban government failed to send an ambulance to his during a medical emergency.

"Just this last Friday, we lost a student of ours, a brother, Erasmus Klutse and one of the reasons why we lost him was because of the poor health treatment that we’ve been receiving.

"And the issue that we have is that the mission here has made it very easy for the Cubans not to make us a priority when it comes to our health because if they had sent an ambulance to him, we feel that his death could have been prevented," he said.

He added: "So, that’s the reason why we are agitated and we are calling that there should be measures put in place so that things like this could be prevented."

However, a colleague of the deceased in a Twitter post gave details of the death and said even though he [Erasmus] was diabetic, authorities did not give him the needed attention with regards to his dietary needs.

In a Twitter post, the gentleman known as Pneuthral said on the day of Erasmus' death, he was denied medical care by the university's clinic.

He said: "The body of Erasmus after his death at 7:00 am was lying in the school until 3:00 pm when it was later conveyed to the mortuary I guess. They robbed me of my friend and church leader due to incompetence and I truly...Erasmus who died at the age of 23 had a degree in Biomedical engineering in LEG but wanted to pursue his passion."