Govt addressing injured engineer's case - Hanna Tetteh

Ms. Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has said the government has initiated steps towards addressing the case involving Andrew Boateng, the injured Ghanaian engineer in the employ of Baker Hughes.

Ms. Tetteh said a delegation led by Ghana’s Ambassador to South Africa visited Andrew last Sunday at the Serenity Nursing Home where he currently is.

She said the delegation had found Andrew in Serenity Nursing Home and not the Milpark Hospital as was stated in the earlier reports.

She confirmed that Andrew was a Baker Hughes employee and had been involved in an accident in Gabon.

“He is basically comatose from the assessments of the medical people, he can’t speak, he can’t move, he has very limited bodily function,” she said, adding that there were currently two ladies- a Nigerian and Zimbabwean who were his caretakers.

According to reports initially shared on social media and some media outlets, Andrew Boateng, an employee of Baker Hughes Ghana, an American oil and gas services company, which operates in Ghana, and other African countries, was involved in an accident while on rotational duty in Congo and Gabon, which left him critically injured.

Reports say he was airlifted to the Netcare Milpark Hospital in West Johannesburg, South Africa, while in coma but he was, subsequently, abandoned by Baker Hughes in a Nursing Home with inadequate care.

But Ms Tetteh explained that Andrew was initially brought to the Netcare Milpark Hospital in West Johannesburg, which specialised in handling medical emergencies and was later taken to Clayton House where he was improving.

He was, however, moved from Clayton House to the Serenity Nursing Home where the delegation found him.

She said:“Now that we have an assessment from our embassy on what his situation is, there are two things that we want to do: We have just spoken with the South African Ambassador to help his brother, Joseph Boateng, to get a visa to South Africa so that he will be in a position to care for his brother as a family member.”

She explained that the delegation had presented some money to Andrew’s caretakers for his upkeep and pledged Ghana’s further financial support if needed.

The Government, she said, would also invite Baker Hughes to explain their side of the situation and clarify why they had taken certain decisions.

She explained: “He is their employee, they’ve taken care of him to a point; they have executed some of their responsibility. We want to understand from them also what has made them take the decisions they have taken because there seems to be a lack of further care”.

Ms Tetteh said it was important to hear from Baker Hughes before making any further pronouncements or assessments because doing so would be on the basis of half information.

She stated:“We will continue to monitor the situation. We want to understand the situation, from the perspective of Baker Hughes and also from a medical perspective before we can make an informed decision as to what will be the next best steps.”