Okyenhene recounts how dying Amissah-Arthur was taken to 37 hospital
There was no ambulance to carry former Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur to the 37 Military Hospital when he collapsed at the Airforce Gym last Friday, the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin II has recounted.
The Okyenhene was also working out in the same gym as the two "friends" had done over the past 14 years, he said.
"As it's been for 14 years, any time I go there [gym], I meet my friend and we'll talk, shake hands … and then go to our different machines…", he told an audience.
According to him, as the two of them worked out separately, "… I heard 'bang'! Three women in the gym were screaming, I left my machine and went and there lay my friend trying to find some air to breathe.
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Death
For many people, Mr Amissah-Arthur’s death was too sudden to believe as he was not taken ill before giving up the ghost.
But for the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, a personal friend of the late Vice President, death was not only a surprise to him but has taught him a lifetime lesson that he would never forget.
Video
In a video widely published on social media, the revered chief recounted how he saw and interacted with the late vice president at the Airforce Gym, a few moments before the incident occurred.
Read Also: Profile of late former Vice President Amissah-Arthur
According to him, he interacted with Mr Amissah-Arthur for some minutes before they separated their ways to their various training machines before the incident happened.
Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin said while he was training, he heard a loud bang. He added that he quickly rushed to where he heard and found some of the trainers gathered around the late vice president on the ground with a few of the women at the gym at the time, including Mr Amissah-Arthur’s wife screaming and praying.
"We gathered around him and pumped his heart as hard as we could, yelled out his name; his wife was calling out: 'Jesus, save him!' I just said: 'Call the ambulance, let's take him to the hospital'.
"There were about seven, eight of us, and something dawned on me: When we took him out, there was no ambulance, there was no car, we threw the former vice-president in the back of a pick-up and drove off to 37.
He said he saw the late vice president struggling to breathe as the people around tried to resuscitate him. According to the Okyenhene, while others were trying to help the late vice president, he called for an ambulance because there was no ambulance at the gym.
Read Also: Rawlings, Kufuor mourn Amissah-Arthur
That, he added, since the ambulance would delay in getting to the gym, they had to resort to a pick-up vehicle at the gym to transport him to the 37 Military Hospital.
"At this moment, I went back to the gym and everybody had departed. The place was empty. I just went and got my towel and my phone, called my driver to take me home.
"I was waiting so anxiously on the phone to hear if somebody will call and say that he's alright. The call came, and Boakye, the trainer in the gym said Osagyefo, he didn't make it. The vice-president is dead", the revered chief narrated.
Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin continued that while the late vice president was sent to the hospital, he waited at the gym waiting for a good news from those that sent him to the hospital that Mr Amissah-Arthur was responding to treatment.
He said the very moment he was told that the vice president was dead, he realised the limitation of man over his own life.
The Okyenhene in the video (above) admonished the public to be humble and remember their creator while they have life in them and that it doesn’t matter one’s status in life, everyone will die one day and give account to his or her creator about the things he or she did on this earth.
Background
Mr Amissah-Arthur collapsed at the Airforce Gym on Friday morning, June 29, 2018, during a workout session and was rushed to the 37 Military Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Former Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur was born in Cape Coast, Central Region, in April 1951.
On August 6, 2012, he was sworn-in as the Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana and served in that position until January 07, 2017.