By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Of course, we all know that the first successful surgical procedure in the world was not performed at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital by physicians trained at the Ghana Medical School. We also know that the first doctor in the world was autodidact, or self-taught; and the surgical procedure involved the extraction of a rib from the side of the Biblical Mr. Adam and its implantation into the body of a newly molded Ms. Eve, the soon-to-be Mrs. Adam. I am not here in any way suggesting that humankind is the veritable product of incest, although it is quite scientifically possible that we are. And does it really matter? It all depends on whom you talk to, of course.
Anyway, what brings me to the above topic is the report that a male teacher at the Fountain Head Christian School at Sakumono, near Tema, is threatening to sue the staff of the Sakumono Community Hospital for medical malpractice. The story goes that Mr. Stephen Kyei-Antwi, the teacher, had rushed his wife who had seriously cut her arm to the hospital for treatment. The wife’s name, as of this writing, had not been released; and neither had the description of the exact weapon by which Ms. Kyei-Antwi’s arm was cut been given by the media. What happened next is what makes this story quite fascinating. And it is that having, perhaps, treated Ms. Kyei-Antwi’s cut with an antiseptic medication, very likely rubbing alcohol, an unnamed nursed is reported to have instructed an orderly standing within her reach to stitch up the cut.
Well, all seemed to be going well with the couple until several days later, what seemed like the rots, or gangrene, began to afflict the patient whose husband quickly rushed her back to the hospital. They would shortly discover to their horror that, indeed, contrary to their expectation, the man, or sore-stitcher they had equated with a professional surgeon, or at least a nurse practitioner of some sort, was actally a hospital security guard. Naturally, officials at the Sakumono Community Hospital are tight-lipped about the entire scandalous affair.
What we ought to be concerned about is the fact that such criminal travesty was allowed to happen at an officially certified and licensed health center. I have just learned from a conjugal relative that the doctors at the hospital are Russian-trained, which may or may not be relevant to a discussion of the issue at hand. What is relevant, though, is how long such inexcusably criminal practice has been going on at the health center. And if such scandalous practice could be permitted at the Sakumono Community Hospital, what guarantees do Ghanaians have that similar criminal practices are not going on at other private, or even public, healthcare facilities? The Ministry of Health needs to promptly step in and possibly close down this patently poor excse of a community health center, until it can be credibly ascertained that the facility is adequately equipped with professionally qualified personnel at all staffing levels.
Equally significant is the need to promptly arraign the criminal suspects involved before a legitimately constituted court of law and have them vigorously prosecuted to the fullest extent allowable by the law. In the past, the problem has largely entailed the dispensing of dud/fake medicines by some pharmacies. It is almost certain that the practice persists. And the latter practice is equally as criminal and dangerous as having a hospital security guard double as a surgeon. And by the way, are the criteria for qualifying to practice medicine in President John Dramani Mahama’s Ghana this scandalously cheap? If so, then I suppose my four year’s security guard’s experience some twenty-five years ago with the Well Fargo Security Services, right here in the United States, fully qualifies me to be certified as a surgeon in Ghana.
Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., M.D., STITCHIOLOGIST. “Ka-demmit”!
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
E-mail: [email protected]
