The management of Euracare Multispecialist Hospital, Lagos, has begun an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Nkanu Nnamdi, the 21-month-old son of renowned Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie.
This comes amid outrage generated on social media after the popular writer, on Saturday, accused the hospital’s staff of medical negligence leading to her son’s death.
Adichie said her son was taken to the hospital on Tuesday for an MRI scan and the insertion of a central line.
In a statement shared via X (formerly Twitter), she explained that the ordeal began during yuletide when her son developed what was initially thought to be a cold but later turned into “a very serious infection.”
She said Nnamdi was first admitted to Atlantis Hospital in Lekki and was scheduled to travel to the United States on Wednesday, accompanied by travelling doctors.
According to her, a medical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital was already on standby to receive her son in Baltimore and had requested that he undergo a lumbar puncture test and an MRI scan.
Adichie said that the request led them to Euracare after they were informed that it was the best facility for such procedures.
She stated that upon arrival at Euracare, they were told her son would need to be sedated to prevent movement during the MRI and central line procedures.
However, she alleged that her son was not properly monitored after being administered an “excessive dose of propofol” by the hospital’s anaesthesiologist.
According to her, the situation quickly deteriorated, leading to loss of responsiveness, seizures and cardiac arrest, which eventually resulted in his death on Wednesday.
She said, “I was waiting just outside the theatre. I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theatre and immediately knew something had happened.
“A short time later, Dr M came out and told me Nkanu had been given too much propofol by the anaesthesiologist, had become unresponsive and was quickly resuscitated.
“But suddenly, Nkanu was on a ventilator. He was intubated and placed in the ICU. The next thing I heard was that he had seizures. Cardiac arrest. All these had never happened before. Some hours later, Nkanu was gone.”
Adichie further alleged that her son was never monitored after being administered the sedative.
“It turns out that Nkanu was NEVER monitored after being given too much propofol. The anaesthesiologist had just casually carried Nkanu on his shoulder to the theatre, so nobody knows when exactly Nkanu became unresponsive,” she said.
She also accused the anaesthesiologist of switching off her son’s oxygen after the central line procedure.
“How can you sedate a sick child and neglect to monitor him? Later, after the ‘central line’ procedure, the anaesthesiologist casually switched off Nkanu’s oxygen and again decided to carry him on his shoulder to the ICU,” Adichie stated.
Describing the incident as criminal negligence, she said, “The anaesthesiologist was CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child. No proper protocol was followed.”
She lamented that her son was stable before the procedure and was expected to travel the following day.
“We brought in a child who was unwell but stable and scheduled to travel the next day. We came to conduct basic procedures, and suddenly our beautiful little boy was gone forever. It is like living your worst nightmare. I will never survive the loss of my child,” she said.
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