Korle Bu Detains Girl For Unpaid Bills

For her inability to pay a ¢1.66 million medical bill, a 9-year-old girl, Comfort Mensah, whose leg was amputated following a snake bite is being detained at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

Doctors attending to her have also refused to sign a referral document transferring her to the Nsawam Orthopaedic Centre for further treatment.

Speaking to the Spectator last Thursday, the Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr. Musafa Salifu, said Comfort Mensah was admitted to the hospital on March 31 after being bitten by a snake and was discharged with an amputated leg.

He said, she incurred a bill of ¢1 million and another ¢660,000 being rent charges on accommodation for those who took care of her while she was on admission.

He told the Spectator that Comfort’s bills were being paid by visitors who came to the hospital and were touched by her condition. Unfortunately she had not been lucky since she was discharged and the hospital cannot also write off the bill

Comfort’s grandmother, Mispah Ganyo, told the ‘Spectator’ that she was bitten by a snake on January 17, 2006 on her way to the grandfather’s farm at Golenu near Hohoe.

She was rushed to a nearby clinic at Nomesi near Hohoe, where she was treated and discharged.

The following day Comfort relapsed into a severe condition and fell into coma. When they examined her further they saw that her left leg was swollen and was getting rotten.

She was then rushed to the Hohoe District Hospital where she was transferred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

At Korle-Bu hospital her leg was amputated.