The President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Frank Serebour, is calling for an urgent investigation into conditions that led to the death of a child at the Tema Government Hospital.

According to him, it will be difficult to substantiate claims that the baby’s death was the result of a power outage that occurred at the facility.

“I am surprised to hear that a patient has lost their life due to the oxygen supply being cut off during power outages. I find it hard to believe,” he disclosed in an interview with Millicent Safo-Adu on Bresosem at Abusua965FM.

Dr. Frank Serebour emphasized, “Oxygen is not powered by electricity unless they are suggesting the Hospital did not have oxygen cylinders.”

He argued that even if there were challenges with the main system supplying general oxygen, in the event of a power outage and the inability to restore power, hospitals rely on cylinders.

He pointed out that in his own facility, the Bekwai Government Hospital, cylinders are still purchased for such eventualities even though oxygen concentrators supply oxygen to many patients.

He explained that such cylinders support emergency cases and patient referrals that require oxygen transport.

Correcting another notion that the monitors going off could have killed the baby, he stressed, “Monitors going off and showing zero readings cannot kill a patient.”

Causes of Patient Deaths:

Dr. Serebour explained that if a patient were on a ventilator and the power went off for a prolonged time as 2 hours, that patient could lose their life even with immediate action from medics.

However, in this case, the patient was not on a ventilator, he noted.

“The hospital’s system must be thoroughly checked. I believe the cause of the baby’s death should be investigated, and it may not necessarily be related to the power outage,” he argued.