Twin Baby Missing After Delivery at Ridge Hospital

The father of the twins who were delivered at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge) on May 10, 2018 is asking the hospital authorities to produce the body of one the babies who the hospital says is dead.

Mr John K. Gabulja says he ‘smells a rat’ with the hospital authority’s narration of the baby’s death and is challenging them to give him evidence.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, he said his wife was delivered of twin girls on May 10, 2018 at the Ridge Hospital and was told by the midwife that the children had to be kept in an incubator at the Babies Ward because they were delivered at 31 weeks and were, therefore, premature.

He stated that he was initially denied access to the children by a nurse whose name he gave as Dede “because she wanted me to place a deposit for each child and also buy some medicines and baby dresses before I can see my children”.

“Even though I made the deposit, I still could not see them because the nurse said I did not have the baby dresses. My wife and I actually saw our children on May 11, 2018 after I fulfilled all the conditions,” he said.

Twin dead

Mr Gabulja said he and his wife went to the hospital every day but the doctors always said the babies were doing fine. He stated that there was no problem with them until May 14, 2018 when he got to the hospital about 3 p.m. and was told by a female doctor that “one of my children, the first one, had died about 8:30 a.m”.

“I asked what killed her but she said she did not know the cause of the baby’s death because she was initially fine and was even fed with breast milk. I requested, therefore, to see the doctor in charge and was told she was not in. I asked to see her supervisor who arrived with three other doctors, one of whom tried to justify the cause of death, but I was not convinced,” he stated.

Body of baby unavailable

“My wife called later to say she was at the entrance to the hospital and was coming to join me, after which I requested to see the body of the child. Immediately one of the doctors urged me to prevent my wife from coming, since she would be difficult to deal with. At that moment, all the doctors left me alone to tell my wife what had occurred,” he added.

Mr Gabulja said he went to see one Dr Brako who was among the doctors he had met and who introduced himself as the senior doctor in charge of the Babies Ward, and again requested for the body of the baby.

He said Dr Brako told him that the baby’s body would be taken care of and asked him to rather concentrate on the surviving baby.

When he persisted in asking for the baby’s body, he was told the body could not be found.

“My wife and I are not convinced that our baby is dead and so we are demanding for the cause of death and the body of our child,” he added.

Hospital’s response

When contacted, the Medical Director of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Dr Emmanuel Srofenyo, said his outfit was putting together a report for submission to the Director General (DG) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, for consideration and action.