I never saw dead baby; father of missing twin responds to Ridge Hospital
The father of a twin said to have died at the Ridge Hospital in Accra has said he never saw the corpse of his supposedly dead baby as explained by the hospital authorities.
John Gabulja also said it is false that the hospital lost contact with him for over a month after the death of his baby for which reason they disposed off the body as “due process” required.
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“It is not true…I was at the hospital every single day until June 12, [2018] and the baby died on May 16, [2018] so it is not even a month yet,” Mr Gabulja said in a radio interview on Accra based Joy FM on Friday morning.
Read also: Twin baby missing after delivery at Ridge Hospital
However, according to medical director of the hospital, Emmanuel Sorofonyo, the baby died on May 14, 2018 and the father, Mr Gabulja was made to see the baby and given the chance to take the corpse home for burial.
Dr Sorofonyo in a radio interview with Joy FM on Thursday evening said, the father declined to take the corpse and said he will get back to the hospital authorities.
He added that after a month of not hearing from Gabulja, they took the baby to the morgue as required by the hospital’s policy.
“We even make announcements on the airwaves,” he said.
Speaking on Friday, Mr Gabulja questioned the logic of Dr Sorofonyo, saying that he was present at the hospital for the entire period and therefore the authorities could have talked to him before taking the supposedly dead baby to the morgue.
He said his wife was on admission at the hospital for the entire time with the other twin baby so the hospital’s claim that they couldn’t contact them to take their corpse is not true.
“They haven’t even told me the cause of death, all that the doctor said was it is an unfortunate death,” he lamented.
“They also made me sign a document saying that I have been counselled,” he said
Background
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.
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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 the Daily Graphic 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.