Perfect Daba, a promising 23-year-old woman from Torgome in the Volta Region, bled to death in three solid hours, during which she failed to reach the hospital.
She had been delivered of a bouncy baby girl in the middle of the night, but complications had set in, a familiar problem faced by most of the 4,000 Ghanaian women who die annually from pregnancy-related complications.
Bleeding is the major cause of maternal deaths in Ghana. What sets the death of Perfect apart, however, is the context and extraordinary circumstances.
There is only one exit out of the village of Torgome, and that is a metal gate at the Kpong Power Plant managed by the Volta River Authority (VRA). At 3 a.m. that fateful day when Sammy, Perfect’s husband, tried to rush his dying wife in a taxi to the Akuse Hospital, about 80 kilometres away, the metal gate was shut.
Unfortunately, the security man was nowhere to be found.
Sammy recollects that it took nearly an hour to find the security guard and persuade him to open the gate. The gate is normally reopened at 6 a.m. The other exit possibility is on the Volta Lake on the other side of the village, but the lake is deep there and unsafe for shallow canoes.
Right lessons
Apart from learning the right lessons in order to reduce the high incidence of maternal deaths across the country, Perfect’s story is significant because she paid a price for all of us with her life.
Torgome occupies a strategic place in Ghana’s developmental history. It is one of the resettlement villages created by the Volta River Hydro-electric project which transformed the physical environment of the area. The Volta Lake is the largest man-made lake in the world.
Delay in reaching health facilities has been cited by the Ghana Health Service as one of the three key issues resulting in the high incidence of deaths across the country. Normally, this is associated with pregnant women failing to recognise or acknowledge the risk signs of pregnancy or labour, lack of transport to hospitals from far-to-reach villages, especially during the night, lack of ambulances and so on but never because a gate is locked.
Perfect eventually arrived at the Akuse Hospital, still conscious but in a critical condition. The staff responded promptly but more than three hours had passed since she went into labour.
Sammy said when Perfect first complained about stomach pains, he took her to the village health post, but it was closed that fateful Saturday.
At the Akuse Hospital, there was no doctor on duty, but the nurses did their best to resuscitate her. Many government hospitals have a perennial shortage of doctors and skilled medical personnel. As the nurses tried to bring Perfect back to life, Sammy and an auntie who had accompanied them were asked to leave the room.
The doctor eventually arrived, but it was too late. He called Sammy back to the ward to tell him the bad news. The nurses said Perfect’s veins had collapsed, making it impossible to inject a drip.
The newly born baby had also made the journey to the hospital. She was well but had to be hospitalised for special care since she was born prematurely.
Sammy went back home that morning without his wife and his baby.
Perfect’s funeral
Perfect’s funeral was one of the most emotionally charged funerals our cameras had recorded. It was proceeded by a wake and a burial attended by family members and people from all the surrounding villages. She was a popular local girl known for her kindness and helpful nature.
Sammy is also the village choice carpenter.
There was sadness, and there was anger, but it was all dignified and the pleas were almost cordial. The gate must be opened at all times, everybody said. The VRA can ensure that its security concerns are met by posting security guards there around the clock. Restricting their movement, especially when it was going to delay reaching the hospital and end in such a tragedy, was a denial of their human rights. They also pleaded for a properly functioning local clinic that can ensure that women delivered safely at all times.
In the TV programme to be broadcast, John Chobbah, the VRA’s Communication Officer, expressed shock at Perfect’s tragic end and extended his sympathy to her family.
He was, however, firm about this. Due to security reasons, the VRA would not open the gate at night.
Perfect’s story was told on Maternal Health Channel on TV3 at 8.30 p.m. on July 26 and will be repeated on GTV at 8 p.m. next Thursday, August 1 and on TV3 at 8.30 p.m. on Friday, August 2.
The Daily Graphic
