Armed robbers attack ambulance transporting pregnant woman in labour

Some suspected armed robbers on Thursday attacked an ambulance which was transporting a pregnant woman who was in labour in the Eastern Region.

The attack left the driver of the ambulance badly injured with a gunshot wound.  The bullet is said to have hit his head and affected the eye.

It took the intervention of one other passenger in another vehicle, which had earlier been also attacked by the robbers, to drive the ambulance to the Tetteh Quarshie Hospital at Akuapim Mampong for the driver to be resuscitated and later referred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra for further management.

The pregnant woman with the assistance of the EMT on board gave birth in the ambulance whilst the "good samaritan" was driving the ambulance towards the Tetteh Quarshie Hospital. 

She was later transferred to the Koforidua Government Hospital.

The incident traumatised the EMT on board the ambulance. She later received counselling at Korle Bu and has since been discharged.

What happened initially

The driver and the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) were transferring the pregnant woman who was in labour and her relative from the Akuse Government Hospital to the Koforidua Regional Hospital Thursday dawn.

The incident happened at about 1:30 am.

The team were said to have run into the suspected armed robbers near the Aseseeso mountains.

The Deputy Eastern Regional Administrator of the Ghana National Ambulance Service, Mr Felix Owusu confirmed the incident in a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM monitored by Graphic Online.

He said the driver is currently at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital receiving treatment.

"Our men were dispatched to a maternal case from Akuse to Koforidua Regional Hospital. Whilst heading towards Aseseeso mountains, they realised about two cars were parked in front so they slowed down... not knowing it was armed robbers staging the operation over there. So upon seeing the beacon lights of the ambulance, they (robbers) thought our men were police officers who are coming to the scene to salvage the situation," Mr Owusu said in the radio interview.

"But we [ambulance staff] are not armed, we only care for patients or clients. So the driver upon seeing them coming, that these people are armed, he decided to retreat and they fired from a range and it passed through the windscreen and off they went. Then, the car just stopped and the people started attacking our crew on board and after seeing that the patient is a pregnant woman in the ambulance, where our non driver, which is the EMT attending to her at the patient compartment, these people did not look at that and they started asking for money, where is your money, where is your phone and a whole lot. So the EMT who is taking care of the patient was having GH¢11 or so with her, she just gave it to them, they took it and then they took her phone as well."

"They were not satisfied, they were just asking, where is your money..., another car was behind them coming and they just vanished. So the passengers in front realised that the ambulance, the driver had been shot, so they came there and one of them just drove the ambulance with our driver and the patient [pregnant woman] to the Tetteh Quarshie Hospital [at Akuapim Mampong] where our driver was resuscitated and then later referred to Korle Bu for futther management."

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"And the pregnant woman was also referred to Koforidua, that is our regional hospital. So basically that is what happened," he added.  

Mr Owusu said from the narration of the EMT, the robbers were suspected to be Fulani herdsmen who were about eight in number. One of them was a woman according to the EMT.