- Safiu Kehinde
Renowned Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has blamed medical negligence for the death of one of her twin sons, Nkanu Nnamdi.
NPO Reported that Nkanu was on Wednesday announced dead after brief illness.
While the cause of the 21-year-old boy’s death was initially not disclosed, Adichie would on Saturday open up on the circumstances that surrounded the death of her son.
As contained in a statement issued on her official X handle, the author disclosed the child had fallen sick while spending Christmas holiday in Lagos.
Adichie accused medical practitioners who attended to him of being responsible for his death due to negligence.
She alleged that the anesthesiologist assigned to the boy at the Euracare Hospital had neglected him after administering an overdose of propofol which led to him having cardiac arrest.
The statement read; “We were in Lagos for Christmas. Nkanu had what we first thought was just a cold but soon turned into a very serious infection and he was admitted to Atlantis hospital. He was to travel to the US the next day, January 7th, accompanied by Travelling Doctors.
“A team at Johns Hopkins was waiting to receive him in Baltimore. The Hopkins team had asked for a lumbar puncture test and an MRI.
“The Nigerian team had also decided to put in a ‘central line’ (used to administer iv medications) in preparation for Nkanu’s flight. Atlantis hospital referred us to Euracare Hospital, which was said to be the best place to have the procedures done.
“The morning of the 6th, we left Atlantis hospital for Euracare, Nkanu carried in his father’s arms. We were told he would need to be sedated to prevent him from moving during the MRI and the ‘central line’ procedure. I was waiting just outside the theater.
“I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theater and immediately knew something had happened. A short time later, Dr M came out and told me Nkanu had been given too much propofol by the anesthesiologist, had become unresponsive and was quickly resuscitated.
“But suddenly Nkanu was on a ventilator, he was intubated and placed in the ICU. The next thing I heard was that he had seizures. Cardiac arrest.
“All these had never happened before. Some hours later, Nkanu was gone.
“It turns out that Nkanu was NEVER monitored after being given too much propofol.
“The anesthesiologist had just casually carried Nkanu on his shoulder to the theater, so nobody knows when exactly Nkanu became unresponsive.
“How can you sedate a sick child and neglect to monitor him?
“Later, after the ‘central line’ procedure, the anesthesiologist casually switched off Nkanu’s oxygen and again decided to carry him on his shoulder to the ICU!
“The anesthesiologist was CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child. No proper protocol was followed.
“We brought in a child who was unwell but stable and scheduled to travel the next day. We came to conduct basic procedures. And suddenly, our beautiful little boy was gone forever.
“It is like living your worst nightmare. I will never survive the loss of my child. We have now heard about two previous cases of this same anesthesiologist overdosing children. Why did Euracare allow him to keep working? This must never happen to another child”.