Laquintinie : MP, Lawyers going for Minister’s Head

Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda and Dr. Jean II Dissongo, Director of the Laquintinie hospital in Douala are apparently frustrated after a failed crisis management on a tragedy where 31-year old Monique Kouamte died alongside her unborn twins in front of the hospital’s maternity last Saturday.

The minister had organized a press conference in Yaounde in an attempt to calm rising tension at a time when several hundreds of city dwellers were already clashing with security forces in front of the hospital. The minister’s declarations sparked even more controversy, increasing calls for his resignation and that of the hospital’s director.

While the father of the deceased twins and family members of the deceased are feeding the media with their side of the story, politicians and other observers have said Mama Fouda, the minister, has left many questions unanswered.

Douala-based parliamentarian of the ruling CPDM, Peter William Mandio, joined his voice to earlier calls on social media demanding the minister’s resignation.

In his argument, he recalls an incident at the Chantal Biya Foundation where a baby suffering from severe anemia was given transfusion with HIV-infected blood which did not even match the child’s blood group. The MP says government bribed both parents to keep the scandal secret and till date the medics involved are still practicing.

The parliamentarian also cited the case of a lady who died last week at the Bonassama district hospital during surgery because the hospital had a defective standby generator, and the locality was stricken by blackouts when the surgery was ongoing.

Mandio recalled the recent death of a young medical doctor who was carried to more than three different “-so-called reference hospitals the same day and later died at the Douala general hospital for lack of money.

He said the minister is used to appointing incompetent and inhuman people and refusing to “punish these criminals in white jackets, carpet traders in laboratories, who are death merchants.”

Mokum Mbah, husband of the deceased

He requested that the director of the Chantal Biya Foundation, Paul Koki Ndombo, that of the Douala general hospital, Belle Priso and the director of the Bonassama hospital be fired.

The president of the North West lawyers association, Barrister Harmony Bobga also shared the opinion that the minister should resign. Boboga who is a human rights lawyer said the minister was wrong to say the lady was dead on arrival at the hospital because there was no document to that effect.

He says the lady could have been in a coma or unconscious and needed just oxygen. He added that the babies were denied their right to live while the deceased was denied the right to medical care.

Cameroonians are also very unsatisfied that the Prime Minister has taken no action, merely requested that proper investigations be carried out and that the governor of the Littoral transmit a message of condolence from President Paul Biya to the family of the deceased.

A group of over 20 local and international lawyers have sued the hospital director and taken upon themselves to defend the victim’s family and free, Rose Tacke, the lady who was jailed for carrying out ‘surgery’ on the deceased in an attempt to save her unborn twins.

The lawyers have accused the director of “refusing to assist” and “voluntary homicide.” They would also be defending people detained in connection to the incident, including a midwife, nurse, morgue attendant. One of the lawyers of the coalition, Barrister Guy Olivier Moteng told press that they had a meeting with the family before engaging in the legal action.

Meanwhile, the Fako Lawyers Association, FAKLA has not remained indifferent. In a lengthy release signed by its president, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla on March 14, FAKLA calls on the government to immediately create a veritable independent judicial commission of inquiry which should include amongst others, lawyers from the private BAR to investigate the incident.

“We equally call on the government to give the said commission unfettered access to all requested information and to create a conducive and enabling environment for the commission to carry out its investigation and that the commission should be afforded reasonable time to make public its report”, the release read in part.

Government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Backary who accompanied the public health minister to Douala four days after the incident, says the family of the deceased was being manipulated by “irresponsible politicians” who want to take advantage of their situation to incite protests.

In the face of criticisms on his declarations at Sunday’s press conference, Mama Fouda told reporters in Douala that he simply presented information that was given to him, but maintained, the mutilation of the body was inappropriate.

However, contrary to Fouda’s declarations at Sunday’s press conference, Mokum Mbah, husband of deceased Monique Koumate told reporters that the pregnant woman was first declared dead, by a taxi driver who transported them from the Nylon District Hospital to Laquintininie. He said family members realized the babies were still moving in her belly and so they continued to the maternity.

At Laquintinie, nurses chose to send them to the morgue when they got there. The mortuary attendant sent them back to the maternity, because he also felt the babies were moving.

They made several rounds, to and fro the maternity and the nurses finally shut the doors “reason why she had to be cut open with a razor blade” outside the clinic.

Monique Koumate abandoned to die alongside her unborn twins outside the Ashanti- Diamant maternity

Ayah Paul, politician and Supreme Court advocate general questions whether the nurses had the competence to declare someone dead. He put forward questions which many Cameroonians believe the minister left unanswered in his attempt to protect the government:

“Is it possible the minister does not know that only a medical doctor (and not a midwife/nurse) can pronounce a person dead? If the intention of the bereaved family was uniquely to extract the foetuses, would they be going to the maternity ward rather than to the theater? The midwife and the nurse on duty came out and took the pulse… Is consultation at the maternity done outside, let alone, in this particular case of extreme emergency? If the woman was already dead together with the foetuses, would a nurse of the hospital be so daft as to open up the woman in the hope of rescuing the babies alive?”

Ayah also questioned: “With Mr. Minister’s verdict vehemently exonerating the hospital workers, is not it a contradiction for the minister to declare that those very workers are in custody? And with such absolute exoneration, what is the utility of the investigation Mr. Minister claims is on?

Meantime, The Cameroon Journal has gathered that Rose Tacke, who tried to save the babies by operating their dead mother with a razor blade, was freed on March 15.