I lost my newborn niece at the teaching hospital in Kumasi the other day. She was born prematurely, with a gestational age of 6 months and 6 days. She was healthy for a baby born at that stage. I am saying this because the hospital that delivered her in Obuasi didn’t think she would survive.
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At first, they told us they were waiting for her to pass on, but it didn’t happen. “This baby has a chance at survival after all,” the doctors told us. They spoke to us about transferring her to the big hospital in Kumasi, and we agreed.
The baby was making progress—we were all sure of it. Her mother gave us updates whenever she went to the NICU to see her.
As we kept our fingers crossed and heads bowed in prayer, my sister-in-law brought us some disturbing news a few days ago. She said, “I don’t know what’s going on, but the nurses have disconnected the oxygen.” For whatever reason known to them, they left the nasal prongs in the baby’s nose.
While we were worried, we were also hopeful. “Maybe this means she doesn’t need the oxygen anymore.”
Oh, but we were wrong. She said when she prompted the nurse in charge, the nurse apologized and reconnected the oxygen.
Regardless, my sister-in-law didn’t have better news for us the next day. “Something is wrong,” she said. She observed that the baby was turning blue, yet they had taken off the oxygen again. “It’s as if they take off the oxygen when I am not here. I don’t understand.”
This time around, when she drew the nurses’ attention to the fact that the baby was not breathing well, they dismissed her with the cheeky remark, “Can’t you see she is still breathing?”
She asked a lot of questions but didn’t get any answers. Two hours later, she returned to see that her baby had turned black. They took every form of life support off her without telling the mother why.
She pushed until a doctor told her that the baby’s chances of survival were 50/50. My question is: if that’s the case, was it right for them to take her off life support without prior communication with the family?
I Was Fine Until I Was Alone In My Room
Now my niece is dead. The saddest part about all this for me is that my sister-in-law struggled to conceive at 33. And this is how she loses her first child?
I feel so wronged about the whole thing. Maybe it’s my grief speaking, but I believe the staff were diabolical in their dealings with our baby. Do we have a case if we want to take legal action against them? If we do, is there any lawyer here who can help me?
—Eunice
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Sorry may the soul rest in peace amen
God who gave your Sil a child will do even more than that. You can sue the hospital for neglect. The mistake you did was go before pray. May her soul rest in perfect peace. Of late these doctors and nurses are killing people.
It’s unfortunate what happened. You can sue for negligence, wrongful death, causing emotional distress, and withholding of information. The fact that your sister had to prompt them multiple times and they did nothing about it, nor did they tell her what was going on, is so unprofessional and unethical. Nurses are not supposed to cause harm, they are supposed to advocate for the patient and family, treat them with utmost care and respect, and not dismiss their concerns among others. You are absolutely right to sue. Sorry for your loss. I pray for strength and hope for your sister and a new baby. All the best to you.
You can sue, but you’re very unlikely to win. You essentially have no proof of wrong doing and it is possible that you misunderstood the situation. Not to mention the fact that health workers usually act like that when there’s no hope for the baby. And it appears that you were not counselled properly on the very poor prognosis.The hard truth is that a baby born at 25 weeks gestational age in Ghana was extremely unlikely to survive. Even if your niece was born abroad, she would still be unlikely to survive. And if she had survived,she was likely to suffer from myriad issues ranging from blindness to mental retardation.The age of viability in Ghana is 28 weeks. This means that half of the babies born at that gestational age will die. I’ve only ever seen one baby born before 28 weeks survive.
And I’ve seen many babies that were born before 32 weeks die.
Let it go, sadly your niece wasn’t meant to live. God will grant your sister in law another child and wipe away your tears.
Sorry!
it’s unfortunate to be in this situation, u have the right to sue them but u know our legal system is flawed. even though the chance of such babies surviving is low but they should have explained every procedure and actions taken to you, that would have reduced the pain your family is experiencing but our health institutions take things for granted
We always have to be vigilant and curious at the hospital