Letter from two trainee medical doctors to IGP, CDS, Interior and Defence ministers
Dear Inspector General of Police (IGP), Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Interior and Defence ministers, respectfully, we write to your high offices to bring to your notice a motor accident which occurred recently.
We saw a motor rider heading towards our direction with speed, not knowing whether the rider had either lost control or had failed brake, soon the motor hit a knoll and went up. It came down with the rider felling into a ditch for his helmet to crack and off it went.
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Soon people gathered and they started hurling insults, “armed robber”, “thief”, you have snatched a phone, okada boys are criminals, etc “God made you to have this accident and you will die now, next time when you come back to this world you will learn some sense.”
Nobody was willing to go near this accident victim. My colleague and I quickly went there and blood was oozing from the victim’s nose and mouth, bruises and cuts over the face, mouth, hand, legs and elbow.
The victim was unconscious. The people there wanted to attack us for going near the man, they started insulting us but we resisted and went to him, positioned him well, he was unresponsive, we felt for his pulse and it was beating, some breath sounds were heard.
We did some basic life-saving techniques as being taught at the medical school. We carried him using the prescribed methods into a car.
Most accident victims die because of the way people handle them, it worsens their ailment, sometimes increasing suffocation, choking and by the time they get to the hospital they are pronounced dead on arrival, DOA.
As fast as we could, we rushed him to the Twumasiwaa Medical Centre, East Legon where they continued the care and gave him some treatment.
After about 30 minutes, he regained some level of consciousness and the only thing he could say was he was a police officer with the East Legon Police Station bearing the name Philip Homadzie and switched off again.
We decided to get more helping hands, so we called Justice Oteng ESQ, a cousin and a lawyer with Addison Bright Sloanne Law firm, Ridge, Accra who quickly gave some legal advice and came to support.
Luckily, we had the victim’s phone with us too and there was no lock or codes on the phone as others do. As we went through the call list we saw "my wife” so we called and thankfully, she responded and rushed to the Twumasiwaa Medical Centre with her brother. The wife wept on seeing the husband.
The police officer’s pulse was becoming irregular so we signalled the nurse at the emergency and she said the attending doctor had entered the theatre and she could not go there.
So, quickly we started another reviving technique and decided to move him to the Police Hospital which his wife agreed.
While on our way, we passed the East Legon Police Station and as fast as the Cheetah, the police got a pick up with hazard lights on and drove fast to the Police Hospital where he was rushed to the accident and emergency department and the medical doctor in charge took full control and started with intravenous fluids, proper maintenance and survival care.
We stayed with him and it took about an hour for him to gain some level of consciousness. When he came back, his first question was “where are we and why am I here” which made us breathe a sigh of relief. We later left the wife and his colleague police officers who had moved from their unit to help him.
So a life had been saved, if we had turned a deaf ear to him at the accident scene and listened to what the onlookers were saying, we would have failed as trainee doctors/medical students who, strictly by training and by the ethics of the profession, are to have the heart power and show empathy to the weak, sick, socially and mentally afflicted people, this innocent young Police Officer would have died within five to eight minutes of the accident.
Dear honourable minister for the Interior, the honourable minister of defence, the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector General of Police, this is to let you know how many civilians work tirelessly unnoticed in serving humanity and always saving lives of uniformed officers.
Sir, IGP, thank God you have your police officer back to life to protect life and property and help in the overall development of mother Ghana.
We think it is never too late for the police service and other uniformed officers to engage more with our communities and societies, when an accident happens, even the elites or the well educated, who parked their cars to take photos, were afraid to support because they said in case the victim died, they would be held as suspects, detained and be told to write witness statements.
The ups and downs and subsequent court proceedings make people decline to help in such situations. It is time the public was educated by your various outfits about what went into such issues.
Thank you sir and we wish you and the Police Service well.
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