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How Doctor’s Negligence Left Me Paralysed For 22 Years In Ghana— Nigerian Trader

Tamuno said this made him paralysed from the waist down and even though he spent two years at the hospital, there was no solution to the problem.

A Nigerian trader, Peter Tamuno, has narrated how the alleged negligence of a doctor in a premier hospital in Ghana cost him his limbs, family, and thriving business.

Sixty-nine-year-old Tamuno, who was born in Benin City, Edo State, was a fairly successful businessman dealing in ladies’ footwear in Nigeria.

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He constantly shuttled between three busy cities in the region, Lagos-Accra-Kumasi, and back before the sad occurrence in 1999.

According to him, a medical doctor (name withheld) working with Korle Bu Hospital administered a wrong injection that left him for dead.

Tamuno said this made him paralysed from the waist down and even though he spent two years at the hospital, there was no solution to the problem. The ordeal, he said, has cost him his wife and two kids.

He said: “I was born in Benin City, and I stayed in Delta state. I was born into a middle-class family, my father was a farmer while my mother was a cook at the College of Education, Abraka before it became a university. My father was a driver at the same institution but when it became a university, they were stopped. Life became miserable but before then, I was already in Ghana.

“I came to Ghana in 1984. I would buy ladies' shoes and send them to Nigeria to sell. I was enjoying success; I bought shoes from Kumasi and sold them at Apapa in Lagos. At the time, the naira was doing fine. If I sold one pair of shoes in Nigeria, it was big money here. I used to sell a pair of shoes for N5 and it was a big money. When I was sick, I spent money but I don't know the name of the illness, and that was the first time since I was born that I had such a sickness, I don’t know the name, I don’t know where it came from.

“At the hospital, during my treatment, I was injected. Then I just noticed I couldn’t move the upper part of my body again. It is by the grace of God I can even talk, it was after five months I could even move some parts of my body. The doctor just discharged me, and said I should go. He said I didn’t have much time to live. I found life miserable, I was convinced I would die. I was thinking: 'how will my family know when I die?'”

On whether he is contemplating suing the doctor or the hospital, he said: "I don't think of suing Korle Bu. Who am I going to sue?”

He continued: "Most of the staff members there at the time are not there again. Some of them have died and most of them have left. So, what am I going to do? I always thank God for restoring my life and that's what I am doing.”

Tamuno said his wife left him when she saw that there was a slim chance of survival for him. He, however, said though he is not educated, does not have a roof over his head, and has lost his legs, the challenges would not derail his stride towards success.

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