A committee set up by the Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Charles Amissah has concluded that the victim suffered what it describes as a “slow death from medical neglect.”
Presenting the findings, Chairperson of the committee, Professor Agyemang Badu Akosa, disclosed that Charles Amissah died from excessive blood loss following severe injuries sustained in a road traffic accident.
According to the report, the cause of death was exsanguination resulting from injuries to the right upper arm bone and soft tissue, which damaged major arteries and veins.
The committee concluded that the death could have been avoided with timely medical intervention at the Police Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, or the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Findings indicate that simple emergency measures, including compression of the wound, proper wound packing, administration of intravenous fluids during transportation, and blood transfusion at any of the health facilities, could have saved his life.
The report further indicts medical personnel at the various facilities for failing to provide immediate stabilizing care after the ambulance arrived with the patient still alive.
At the Police Hospital, the committee found that the ambulance arrived with Charles Amissah alive, but the hospital failed to triage him or initiate emergency treatment before the ambulance left about eleven minutes later.
A similar situation was recorded at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, where the ambulance reportedly remained for about seventeen minutes without any stabilizing intervention before departing.
At the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the committee says the patient also arrived alive, but no emergency intervention was initiated. Instead, the ambulance crew was redirected to the University of Ghana Medical Centre.
According to the report, Charles Amissah eventually died in the ambulance after spending about seventy minutes within the Korle Bu facility.
