Doctors on Strike!! Final-Year SHS Student Dies Because Of Absence Of Medical Doctors

A final-year student of the Asamankese Senior High School (ASASCO) in the Eastern Region, Ernest Aboagye, who was writing the ongoing West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSSCE) has died.

The deceased’s father, Mr. Samuel Kwasi Aboagye, a retired officer of the Quality Control Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), told the Daily Graphic at Asamankese that Aboagye had complained of severe headache on phone to his mother, Mrs. Cecilia Aboagye, last Wednesday.

He said the following day, Aboagye phoned his mother again that the headache had intensified and she advised him to obtain permission from the school authorities and seek medical attention in Oda.

Mr. Aboagye said around 7:30 p.m. last Friday when Aboagye’s dormitory mates realized that his sickness had become serious, they rushed him to the Asamankese Government Hospital but he died as the nurses on duty were trying to treat him in the absence of medical doctors who were on strike.

He described his son as a very brilliant student whose aim was to study medicine after SHS.

Mr. Aboagye advised school authorities to attend to students who fall ill in school and bill their parents afterwards to prevent the recurrence of his bitter experience.

When contacted by the Daily Graphic, the Headmaster of ASASCO, Mr. Sampson Afrifah, confirmed Aboagye’s death, saying it was a great blow to the institution.

He, however, stated that when Aboagye fell ill, he and his classmates kept it a secret from the school authorities until he was at the point of death.

Mr. Afrifah said when Aboagye was on the verge of collapse, his dormitory mates chartered a taxi to convey him to the Asamankese Government Hospital for treatment.

He said Aboagye’s housemaster, who got a hint of his sickness and the dormitory mates’ action, conveyed the sick student to the hospital in his private car but, unfortunately, he died.

Source: Daily Graphic