A male patient died this morning at the Upper East Regional Hospital after the officer-in-charge of oxygen supply deserted his duties.
The patient was said to have been rushed to the hospital last night and was placed on oxygen at the emergency ward.
However, in the wee hours of August 31, 2023, the oxygen supply to him ran out and needed to be restocked.
But the officer in charge was no where to be found, according to a former Assembly Member for Dapooretingo, who is said to have witnessed the unfortunate incident unfold. Nurses on duty at the time attempted to manage the situation until when the officer, who seemed to have neglected his job, showed up.
At the same time, the patient’s condition deteriorated and kept deteriorating. He was out of breath and cried out to the nurses to save his life.
His relatives, who had brought him to the hospital, were distraught and looked up to the healthcare providers to rescue him.
The nurses, subsequently, placed a call to the said officer in a bid to get him to supply the medical oxygen. He, however, directed them to check in another ward for some which may not have been utilised.
After searching earnestly and finding none, they reported back to him. Yet, he did not show up to provide the medicine. Rather, when the search result was announced to him, he complained that he had made available enough oxygen the previous day and did not understand why all the cylinders of the gas will be utilised.
While this was going on, the patient continued to wailed and cried for his life to be saved as his condition continued to worsen second by second.
And at about 4:30am, he gave up the ghost.
The former Assembly Member, Gabriel Ayine, who narrated the incident in an interview on Dreamz FM, said the death of the patient left others in the ward disturbed as some expressed doubts about making it out of the hospital alive.
“A patient just said ‘let me reposition myself, I’m sure I’m next (to die) since there’s no oxygen’. Another patient couldn’t stand it and had to move out. There were a lot of people that were here, they had to move out. Everybody is grumbling here and there,” he told anchor, Nicolas Azebire.
The incident comes just weeks after 3 staff of the hospital were arrested for their alleged involvement in the theft of drugs belonging to the facility.
A year long investigation by the media outlet discovered that Raheem Fasilat, a storekeeper at the hospital; Raymond Asoke, the hospital’s driver; Noeyelle Bridget, Assistant Dispensary Officer at the hospital’s pharmacy in connivance with others yet to be identified were allegedly stealing and smuggling drugs belonging to the hospital out of the region.
The investigators trailed Raymond Asoke to an unmarked house where he had gone to load the stolen medicines into a car and alerted the police leading to his arrest.
The other two were subsequently arrested and the drugs retrieved.
