Cause of Rep Daughter’s Death Unknown

The Secretary and Registrar General at Liberia’s Medical and Dental Council or LMDC, Doctor NyanquoiKargbo, says the actual cause of Nakita D. Forh’s death “had not been specifically known …” Doctor Nyanquoi took the witness stand on Tuesday morning, 27 September after being subpoenaed by the Civil Law Court “A” on the request of counsels for Rep. Edward Forh who had complained government – run John F. Kennedy Medical Center on a US$25m suit over the alleged wrongful death of his daughter Nakita in 2014.

Witness Nyanquoi argued that the late Nakita bled for more than one week in her family home and was physically handled by her father, Rep. Forh without any protective gear during that time, further agreeing to a cross examiner’s inquiry that government established ETUs to meet the medical challenge posed by Ebola, but Doctor Nyanquoi said he pre-supposed that not all patients that go to health centers during emergency periods do so as a result of that emergency.

He admitted that Nakita died in September 2014 when Liberia was still battling against Ebola, but argued that the JFK Hospital had reopened after training, equipping health practitioners with protective materials and announced to the public to carry patients there because it was ready to operate.

Doctor Nyanquoi, who said, he has practiced for 25 years, confirmed to the count his investigative report, claiming that the attitude of health workers, including nurses and doctors at JFK against the late Nakita “showed several levels of negligence.”

Some of the counts read from Doctor Nyanquoi’s report by Rep. Forh’s counsel had suggested that the CMO [Chief Medical Officer] erred …, citing no temperature [recorded] to indicate that the patient was attended to.

He had recommended that the hospital, the chief medical officer Doctor Bailly Johnson, Doctor David Opheree and nursing staff on duty were “liable and should face penalty for the death of this patient.” Doctor Nyanquoi’s report said penalties should include fines, official warnings from their respective boards and suspension of licenses.”

He testified that the LMDC’s investigation was informed that Nakita was taken to the national referral hospital on the first day – September 26, 2014, but asked to go home. Doctor Nyanquoi said the investigation gathered from the JFK health workers was that on the second day, September 27, 2014, the patient was brought in on again, and was asked to present certificate of test
from Ebola Treatment Unit or ETU before they could take her, adding she died in the process.

He agreed that health practitioners, including doctors and nurses, died during the Ebola crisis here, but Doctor Nyanquoi insisted that it could not provide the basis for other health workers to become negligible because the situation was not unique to Liberia and.

He said normally as health professional “we” have to respond to disease whether it is Ebola or not. Jury questions: He said since the LMDC made its report after investigating circumstances surrounding Rep. Forh’s daughter Nakita’s death, the Council did not get any official response from JFK or the other party.

Surrounding referral notes to hospital for transferred patients, Doctor Nyanquoi agreed that it was the right thing to do official communication; but to lack of established referral system here,
patients are moved from one hospital to another without a referral note.

By Winston W. Parley