The ordeal of Suwaiba: Another case of institutional injustice

Few minutes after being told that her baby was a male and weighed 4.02kg, one of the midwives came back to alert the happy Suwaiba that her son had passed on.

Instantly, traumatised Suwaiba requested to be shown the body of her baby so she could mourn him. She was assured by the midwives to relax and recover, since the body had been kept safely.

While patiently waiting for her baby’s body to personally confirm the death, troubled Suwaiba had a horrific shock  when the midwives told her they could not find the body. The midwives further  trivially suggested  that the dead baby, allegedly placed in a box, may have been taken away by a labourer and burnt together with garbage.

Really? Is that the proper way to go about such things in the second largest teaching hospital in Ghana? When did (dead) babies become papers in Ghana?

Concocted story

But fortunately, this concocted story of the midwives was later confirmed as false by  the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH)  authorities. The family reported the matter to the police who arrested the labourer and placed him in custody.

He was later granted bail. The police subsequently invited the midwives who were present when Suwaiba was delivered  of her baby to come to the police station to give their statements.

Later when the family inquired about the  progress of the case  from the police, they were told the midwives were uncooperative- they would not report to the police to have their statements taken. Hmmm!!! But when in Ghana did the Police have their mandate of law enforcement ousted once it involved midwives?

In the face of the attitude of  “powerful” midwives of the KATH who have now turned into overmighty subjects and  with the  “powerless and helpless” police, the enraged youth of Suwaiba’s community who could not make any meaning of the deliberate tragic drama being pursued by workers of two state institutions, seemingly scratching each other’s back, decided  to go to the KATH and demand  the body of the baby themselves. Their peaceful march was met with insults and physical abuse from staff of the KATH and this resulted in a clash, leading to the arrest of some of the members of the group.

The police who could not find any provision in the laws of Ghana to cause the specially and awesomely created and untouchable midwives of the KATH  to cooperate with the investigations, suddenly and (rightly though) found their mandate, strength and muscle and were at their best, heavily armed with an objective of  enforcing Ghana’s laws against the disenchanted youth who were protesting against their being cohorts (ostensibly) of the KATH to deny their sister her baby, amidst beatings and torture.

While I see nothing wrong with the police doing their job and also do not approve of the Zongo youth attack on the hospital, we all also have to recognise that since evil is ruthless in pursuit of its objectives, virtue must be ruthless in self-defence.

I invite you to reflect on these weighty questions with me.

Institutional Injustice

Did you see the alacrity with which the KATH released the labourer  for the  police to arrest him? Why did same not happen in the case of the midwives? You think the police would have appeared  impotent and powerless as they did in the case of the “uncooperative” midwives if they were labourers? Will Suwaiba be going through this ordeal merely to have the (dead) body of her own baby if she were to be the wife, sister or daughter or even a friend of a businessman, renowned engineer, lawyer, lecturer, police officer, politician, journalist or a doctor?

This case of Suwaiba and others is only one of the many examples of  institutional injustice  that many helpless Ghanaians suffer daily. But as Charles Darwin, many years ago, observed: “if the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin”. I add that “our sin” becomes even greater if the misery caused the poor by our institutions is left unfought against.

It will be a deep shame and a crying one on our conscience that after all, we do not care deep if we should let these mothers suffer their undeserved fate alone.  Why must the production of the body of babies declared dead by and at the same hospital become a litigation between the nation and the hospital? It does not weigh sense, not even on the common scale. 

Let your voice count in ousting institutional injustices in Ghana against the vulnerable. 

Writer’s email: bfsvl1988@gmail.com