It was a gloomy atmosphere at House Number 12, Israel, near Florensa Hotel when Mr. Frank Ayim Damptey returned from a one week business trip abroad to meet his household in mourning.
Mr. Frank Ayim Damptey, who is the MD/CEO of Tata Beverages Company Limited is a junior brother of Daniel Danquah Damptey, an NPP activist and regular columnist of most newspapers and websites.
The businessman had returned to the country on Friday, 12th March, 2010, a \day earlier than schedule and decided to surprise his family members at home. Unknown to him, a surprise was awaiting him at home.
He had “chattered” a taxi expecting to see smiling faces beckoning him home. The taxi driver who took his luggage to the house returned to tell him: “Sir, I think there is a funeral going on in your house”. When he summoned courage to get to the house, family members “picked race” or “scattered in various directions for safety” for nobody wanted to be the one to deliver the tragic news to him. The man bore his tragic loss like the stoic philosophers of old on hearing the devastating, but only after shedding some tears. He could not fathom what could have happened for he had spoken to the wife and his children the previous day and the wife did not give him any notion that there was something amiss.
But the most pathetic aspect of the whole thing was the unprofessional attitude exhibited by the staff at the Maternity wing at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on the night of Thursday, 11th March ,2010. The deceased, Diana Ayim who was about Seven and half Months pregnant collapsed at home at about 10.05pm or thereabout and was first rushed to the La-Paz Community Hospital for treatment. But Staff at the Hospital after taken a critical look at her condition directed that she be taken to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
At the Maternity section of the Hospital, the Nurses on duty refused to do anything to alleviate her condition. They said that they were not admitting any new patient due to water shortage at the hospital and that was that. Not even passionate entreaties from family members to the nurses to go and take a look at the patient then in a vehicle could move them from the top of Mount Olympus they thought they were occupying. With utter detachment, they said the patient be taken to either Ridge or 37 Military Hospital.
By the time staff at the Ridge Hospital attended to her, she was stone dead.
Such callous display of “power” by the Nurses at the Maternity Wing of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on the night of Thursday, 11th March, 2010 calls for condemnation by concerned people in the country. Isn’t it time the appropriate authorities took measures to bring such culprits to book to serve as a deterrent to others? What prevented the nurses on duty to go and take a critical look at the patient before ordering that she be taken elsewhere for treatment? If they had done that, perhaps her life might have been saved. Are the Nurses telling us that because there is no water at the hospital, somebody who is in dire need of medical attention will not be treated at the hospital? What about asking the family members of the patient to bring water to the hospital for the upkeep of the patient? I bet, some families might even donate tanks of water.
By the callous and unprofessional conduct of the Nurses at the Maternity wing of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the family has lost not only a mother and a wife who was very dear to us but also a baby who might have grown up to be part of the problem solving body in the country.
Meanwhile, the One Week gathering of the Bempong family of Gyakiti and the Damptey (Bretuo) family of Abomoso and Sankubenase will take place on Friday, 19th March, 2010 at House Number 12, Israel, near Florensa Hotel, Alhaji.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (danieldanquah_damptey@yahoo.com)