Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused a Lagos hospital of negligence after the 6 January death of one of her 21-month-old twin boys, reports The Guardian.
Nkanu Nnamdi died after a brief illness, one of twin boys born to Adichie and Ivara Esege, a doctor, in 2024 by surrogacy, eight years after the birth of their first child, a girl.
The TV channel Arise News reported that solicitors acting for the couple served Euracare Hospital, a private medical facility, with a legal notice dated 10 January which asked for CCTV footage, electronic monitoring data and the toddler’s medical records within seven days.
The notice alleged there were lapses during the child’s admission and lack of basic resuscitation equipment, amounting to medical negligence.
Nkanu died a day before he was due for medical evacuation to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, not far from the couple’s US home. He had been referred from another Lagos hospital to Euracare for a series of diagnostic procedures that included an echocardiogram and a brain MRI.
In a WhatsApp chat to family, leaked to social media, Adichie accused Euracare of negligence, saying a doctor had directly told her that the resident anaesthesiologist had administered an overdose of the sedative propofol. Despite resuscitation and being put on a ventilator, Nkanu suffered a cardiac arrest that led to his death.
Adichie said in the message that the anaesthesiologist had been “fatally casual and careless”.
In response to the leak, Euracare said it was inaccurate to suggest medical negligence was the cause of death and that its staff had “provided care in line with established clinical protocols and internationally accepted medical standards” to the “critically ill” toddler upon admission. The hospital has not yet replied to the legal notice.
On Sunday, the Lagos state government lamented the “profound tragedy” and ordered investigations into the matter.
Adichie’s first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was long-listed for the Booker prize in 2004, a year after its publication. She has since published seven other books.
Nigeria has an abysmally low doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:9,083. Less than 5% of the total annual budget is usually allocated to the health sector.
Botched procedures are common and emergency response services are sparse nationwide; in December, there was outrage after the boxer Anthony Joshua, who survived a car crash that killed two of his close friends just outside Lagos, was lifted by pedestrians into a police truck, rather than an ambulance.
Former World Bank vice-president and Nigerian presidential aspirant Oby Ezekwesili said the country needed “deep reforms” for the sake of Nkanu and other Nigerians “who have needlessly died from the effects of governance failures that plague the health system”.
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