Controversy at 37 military hospital

...over pregnant woman?s death

Dr Lt. Colonel Glawu, gynaecologist at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, has been accused of causing the death of a pregnant woman, Silvia Nyame, aged 34years, while she was in labour at the Hospital.

Narrating the ordeal that the woman (Silvia Nyame) went through before passing away, the husband who preferred not to be named for now, told The Crusading Guide in an interview that his day was shattered. ?Sharp pain run through my heart when the Doctor told me that the baby, my pregnant wife was carrying, which he (Doctor) had been examining consistently had died in her womb.

I was confused but I knew my last hope was my lover Silvia, so I cried out to Doctor Glawu to conduct a Caesarian operation to free my wife from the pain and agony of carrying a dead foetus, but he (Doctor) said he would induce her.? ?As time flew away,? the aggrieved husband continued, ?I insisted on a Caesarian, but he refused.?

Then my wife said ?Honey, please tell the doctor I am tired; I can?t carry it anymore I am suffering The drug DICLOFANAC 100 he has administered to me is giving me more problems, I want a Caesarian operation please darling.? I pleaded with the doctor again, but he said he was going to consult his team. My wife?s close friend also pleaded with Doctor Glawu to do the operation to no avail. As the first, second, third and fourth days came, my wife grew weaker and weaker but the Doctor did not listen to me. She was in pains (dying slowly) until she finally bled profusely and collapsed to death the fifth day after delivery.?

That was the sad narration of the husband of Mrs Silvia Nyame, who died at the 37 Military Hospital on 8 February 2002. With eyes glistening with tears, the man intimated that, ?Even through I recognise that God gives and takes away, I believe that the drug DCLOFENAC 100 killed my baby and probably my wife. Any time she took that medicine, she complained bitterly to me and the Doctor as well that she was feeling pains, but Dr Glawu prescribed the same medicine which troubled her again for the second time.

I am so hurt and bitter with the Doctor. My wife did not deserve to die this away. He could have saved her life but he looked on as Silvia?s pains increased from day to day until she bled to death. How can I bear Silvia?s absence?? he said. The widower told the Crusading Guide that it was difficult for him, adding that confusion and total dismay were his immediate state of mind when the shocking news of the sudden death of Silvia hit his ears.

He disclosed that until her sudden death, his darling wife had been very fit, moving to and fro to the Military Hospital for medicare as well carrying out her official duties. The husband underscored that he abandoned all by the Doctor to inform him of his wife?s dead baby and her subsequent admission at 37 Military Hospital. ?I left Kumasi that evening (4 February 2001) when I received the call at 6:30 pm from my wife that her baby was not kicking. By 9:30 pm I was already at the hospital to see my dear Silvia,? he recalled.

According to the husband, Silvia had told him that the Doctor had conducted three scans (two at the Military Hospital and the other one at private one) and had concluded that ?there was no heart beat in the baby? ?With pains I mustered courage and in my confused state of mind, asked the Doctor to conduct a caesarian operation but he would not budge until Silvia died the fifth day.?