Blood Donor Dies After Hospital Denies Her Blood
A 21-year-old girl died on Saturday after the Ashongman Community
Hospital in Accra refused to give her blood, even though she is a blood
donor.
According to Adolf Lawson, father of the level 300 student of the
Catholic University, doctors at the Ghana Atomic Energy Hospital, where
his daughter was on admission, directed him to the Ashongman Community
Hospital to purchase blood for his sick daughter, since they did not
have the essential fluid at their facility.
He said he went to the Ashongman community hospital with his
daughter’s blood donation card, in the hope that the body fluid will be
given to him at a reduced cost, but that was not the case.
“The Atomic hospital officials told me to go to the Ashongman
community hospital for the blood since they did not have it. I then
decided to go with my daughter’s blood donation card and my own card as
well, since some privileges are extended to donors who are in need of
blood. I got to the hospital and the lab technician told me that he
could not reduce the blood cost of GHC340 even though I was a donor. But
I did not have that much on me,” the distressed father told
StarrFMonline.com Monday.
He continued: “I begged the young man and even showed him proof that I
have donated blood at their facility before, but he still insisted that
until I am able to afford the cost, he cannot give me the blood. He
subsequently directed me to the Amasaman hospital. I got there and there
was no blood. I decided to go to the Achimota hospital where by the
grace of God, I was able to procure the blood at a reduced rate of
GHC120 because I showed them the blood donation cards. Unfortunately,
when I returned to the Atomic Energy hospital my daughter had died”.
Reacting to the incident, the general manager for the Ashongman
Community Hospital, Storms Wells, admitted that the hospital could not
give the deceased’s father the needed blood because he could not afford
it.
“It is true; he was here with the blood donation cards and requested
that we gave him the blood for free, on the account that he was a donor.
But the truth is, we do not give blood on that account. We purchase the
blood from the blood bank and so we do not give it out for free,” he
recounted.
Meanwhile, the director of the national blood bank, Stephen Addai,
who expressed regret over the incident, told StarrFmonline.com that all
efforts should have been made by the Ashongman Community Hospital to
assist the father of the girl, regardless of his financial status, since
he is a donor.
“ As a rule, priority is given to blood donors. Even though the
product cannot be given for free, donors are given a special privilege.
And in this case, the hospital should have provided the needed
assistance to the father; it’s unfortunate that this had to happen”.
Source: Starrfmonline.com
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