The family of a Ghanaian engineer whose death after a traffic accident ignited public anger over the country’s chronic “No Bed Syndrome” has filed a GH¢20 million lawsuit against three hospitals, several medical workers and the Attorney General, alleging a cascade of failures in emergency care.
Dr. Matilda Amissah, a physician and sister of the late Charles Henry Amissah, brought the suit at the High Court in Accra as administratrix of his estate. The defendants include the Ghana Police Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, and a number of doctors and nurses attached to the facilities.
According to the statement of claim, Mr. Amissah, a 29-year-old engineer employed by Promasidor Ghana Ltd., was struck in a hit-and-run accident on the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Overpass on the night of Feb. 6, 2026.
After he failed to return home, relatives reported him missing to police. Four days later, officers from the Nima Police Station informed the family that an unidentified accident victim had been taken to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
When relatives arrived at the hospital mortuary, the suit alleges, they found the body decomposing outside the cold room and infested with maggots.
The lawsuit claims that the National Ambulance Service first transported Mr. Amissah to the Police Hospital, where staff allegedly refused admission because no beds were available. Ambulance personnel pleaded with medical workers to administer first aid as the victim bled heavily, according to the filing, but no emergency stabilization was provided.
The ambulance then proceeded to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital at Ridge, where the family alleges treatment was again declined for lack of bed space. At Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the suit says, medical personnel similarly failed to provide immediate care despite appeals from ambulance staff to treat the patient while he remained on a stretcher.
Mr. Amissah later suffered cardiac arrest around 12:50 a.m. and was pronounced dead at Korle-Bu, court filings state.
The family argues that he remained alive for more than two hours as he was transferred between facilities and that timely emergency intervention could have saved his life.
Post-mortem findings cited in the suit identified severe blood loss, deep lacerations, fractures and trauma-related complications resulting from exsanguination.
Dr. Amissah accuses the hospitals and medical staff of negligence, including failing to conduct emergency triage, stabilize the patient or prioritize urgent treatment despite the severity of his injuries.
The suit also alleges that the handling of the body compounded the family’s trauma, saying decomposition prevented traditional funeral rites, including the laying in state of the deceased.
The legal action follows the release of findings by a government-appointed investigative committee chaired by Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa. The committee concluded that failures at all three hospitals contributed to the engineer’s death and that prompt medical intervention could likely have prevented it.
Its report cited breakdowns in emergency response procedures, weak coordination among institutions and failures by clinicians to administer life-saving treatment despite the patient arriving alive at each facility.
The committee recommended disciplinary action against several healthcare professionals named in the lawsuit and called for broader reforms to Ghana’s emergency healthcare system.
Dr. Amissah said the death had imposed severe emotional and financial hardship on the family, noting that her brother had become the primary provider for their mother following their father’s death in 2019.
The defendants have eight days after being served to enter an appearance before the court or risk a default judgment.
Source:TheDotNews