Ghana – 18th June, 2018: A 22-year-old man is the latest person to level allegations of medical negligence against the Greater Accra Regional Hospital popularly known as Ridge Hospital.
According to Harrison Besanya, the negligence of the health authorities at the facility has left him with a protruding and rotten abdomen following a surgery six months ago for appendicitis.
He told Joy News’ Kojo Yankson that he was referred to the hospital after an initial report of abdominal pains at the Mamobi Polyclinic.
"They [doctors] said I had to undergo a surgery and I was alerted the stitches would be removed after the 10th day when the wound would have healed."
"They have been dressing the wound until the seventh day when the nurse on duty started removing the stitches," Besanya said.
Besanya said although he was in a weak condition, he resisted when removing the stitches.
The angry nurse only ignored his cries and said, "who are you to teach me my job," when the patient insisted that the doctor had categorically stated when to remove the stitches.
He recounted that he has had no sleep from then because "at midnight, the wound opened up from top to down."
The nurse he called to help him told him his condition required a doctor who later came and directed the wound to be dressed so that proper attention could be given to the wound in the morning.
According to him, they were unable to attend to him in the morning until some few days later when the open wound was restitched.
He claims the doctors were not so moved to tend to his condition and when they eventually did, his wound was restitched in the dressing room and not the theatre where they had earlier said he was to be attended to.
"The doctor used the same holes in restitching the wound and days later, the nurse was coming to dress the wound removed the plaster and realized the skin has rotten and the stitches had removed," Besanya told the reporter.
His comments follow more victims of alleged medical negligence cases at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital beginning to speak up recently.
In the last week, scores of people claiming to be victims have either called into radio stations or taken to social media to share their hospital experiences.
A young couple has implored authorities at the hospital to provide them with details into the mysterious disappearance of their newborn child.
The hospital claims the baby died and was being taken care of by the medical professionals, but the parents of the child said they were neither informed about the death nor shown the body.
They have threatened to sue the hospital for medical negligence.
In a quick reaction, the Ridge Hospital says it has begun investigations into the matter.
Consultant Obstetrician/Gynecologist at the facility, Dr Emmanuel Srofenyo, said Besanya was treated for a complicated surgery for a perforated appendix.
"The condition had gone on for four days before he came to the hospital and a surgery was done the next day. The surgery itself was successful, but there is always a risk which we call dirty surgery.
"There is always the risk that the wound would get infected and because of that infection, it was like the stage was set for him to get this complication. There was already an infected abdomen because of the perforation of the appendix which led to the development of a hernia," he explained.
Dr Srofenyo said the situation could have been avoided if both the hospital and the patient had adopted a good means of communication in dealing with the complication.
Source: https://www.myjoyonline.com/lifestyle/2018/June-18th/medical-negligence-ridge-hospital-cited-in-case-of-rotten-stomach-after-surgery.php