A 19-year-old second-year law student from the University of Ghana, Nana Obeng Owusu Junior, reportedly lost his life within two minutes of receiving an injection containing an unidentified medication administered by a nurse identified only as Michael at the Ewim Polyclinic in the Cape Coast Metropolis.
According to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), the incident occurred around 19:00 hours on a Monday, with the student allegedly passing away immediately after the administration of the injection.
In an attempt to investigate the circumstances surrounding the student’s mysterious death, the news agency visited the Ewim Polyclinic. During the visit, they met with a Nursing Manager and a senior administrator on duty, but both officials declined to comment on the allegation.
“I’m not authorized to speak on issues like this. The right person to answer these claims is not around.
“By the way, who told you? You can come later, I won’t comment,” the GNA quotes the Nursing Manager and a senior administrator as saying amid surprise and discomfort.
Nelly Mills, the deceased’s mother, told the GNA that on the fateful day, she brought her asthmatic son to the facility to receive a nebulizer (a small device that turns liquid medication into a mist that can be easily inhaled), but she had no idea he would pass away so suddenly.
Here is what she told the media about what transpired:
When they arrived at the facility, they proceeded to the pharmacy section but were told to go to the emergency ward instead, which they did.
The deceased and Michael misunderstood each other at the emergency room, and Michael yelled at them when they were interrogating the deceased.
“What you want, what do you want,” as if they were not allowed to visit the facility.
She said “Michael, in a seemingly unhappy voice, as if he was tired of caring for patients, shouted at us, something my son did not take kindly”.
Mrs. Mills claimed that she afterwards left the hospital room to buy a prescription that Michael had approved, entrusting the deceased to a younger relative they had brought along.
Mrs. Mills claimed that as soon as she was gone, Michael gave the dead an unknown injection without first checking his vital signs, which caused him to pass away in less than two minutes, and then he fled the scene.
Before the injection, according to Mrs. Mills, the deceased was laughing loudly with his brother; but, after receiving the injection, he abruptly went asleep, and the younger brother believed he was asleep until she arrived and discovered he had passed away.
“I shouted for help repeatedly and called for help, but my son was long dead. Within two minutes after stepping out to buy his medication, my son died, and Michael confirmed he injected him.
“We only needed a nebuliser and not an injection which was written for me to buy, so why the injection? Besides, my son was not seriously ill but suffering from his routine asthma attack,” Mrs Mills said.
She added that the institution refused to give her the body, but quickly organized a hearse to transport it to the University of Cape Coast morgue, where it was embalmed without any family members’ interference.
She alleged, “We followed up to the morgue right after only to find out my son has been embalmed without my concern.
“The arrangement made by the hospital makes the death of my son a subject of investigation, and we will not relent to get to the bottom of this matter,” she stated.
Mrs. Mills urged the Ghana Health Service and the security services to fully examine the death’s cause and see that the bereaved family was given justice.