Delay of ambulance team caused my wife’s death - Obiri-Yeboah

Mr. John Obiri-Yeboah, husband of Madam Augustina Awortwe, the pregnant woman who died in an ambulance transporting her from Holy Child Hospital near Fijai to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital is attributing the wife’s death to the delay by the ambulance team.

According to him, the incident could have been avoided if the ambulance team had continued with the journey to Korle-Bu and had not returned to Fijai Hospital to waste more time.

Mr. Obiri-Yeboah made the disclosure when he appeared before Parliament’s Special Committee investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Madam Augustina Awortwe.

Madam Awortwe died in an ambulance when she was being transported from Takoradi to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

Following the incident, Mr. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member on the Health Committee on Thursday, June 2, 2022, moved a private member’s motion on the matter and was seconded by Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, Minority Chief Whip.

Parliament subsequently constituted a six-member special committee pursuant to Order 191 of the Standing Orders of Parliament to investigate the matter.

The terms of reference of the Committee include investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Madam Augustina Awortwe on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, ascertaining the reasons for the decision to transfer the deceased patient from the Holy Child Catholic Hospital in Fijai to the Korle Bu Teaching hospital in Accra instead of neighbouring health facilities in the area, whether or not the National Ambulance Services demanded the payment of monies as transportation cost before the deceased was transported by the service among others.

Mr. Obiri-Yeboah, the husband of the deceased, recounting the incident to the committee, stated that his wife had reported to the hospital on January 3 expecting to give birth on Tuesday January 4, 2022.

He said after leaving his wife in the care of her wife’s elder sister at the hospital he left for his house at Shama Junction.

He said he was there when the elder sister called that his late wife’s situation had become critical, and they were preparing to transfer her to Korle-Bu.
He said a few minutes later he received a call from the Ambulance Service team asking where he was and told them that he was at Shama Junction, which they asked him to wait and later picked him.

Mr. Obiri-Yeboah also explained that after joining the ambulance en-route to Korle-Bu, and upon reaching a section of the road, they asked for GHS 600 to buy fuel.
Mr. Obiri-Yeboah said he told them he did not have such an amount on him.
He said he suggested to the ambulance team to cater for the refueling of the vehicle and later add the cost to the medical bill, but the team refused and had to stop the ambulance for a while, but he later managed to provide them 50 cedis which they used to purchase fuel.

Mr. Obiri-Yeboah said instead of continuing the journey to Korle-Bu, they returned to the hospital at Fijai as the medical team could not understand why the ambulance had returned which became an argument between the medical team and the ambulance team, but later the hospital provided the money to purchase the fuel.

This he said delayed the journey for close to 30 minutes until they finally set off for Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra at around 1800 hours Tuesday evening.

He said while on the journey, as they reached Elmina in the Central Region, the team informed him that his wife’s condition was becoming critical and that needed immediate medical intervention; they then suggested sending her to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital.

He said upon reaching the Cape Coast Teaching hospital, even before his wife could be sent in for the said medical intervention, one of the personnel from the ambulance team informed him that his wife had died.