The recent sudden death of a 17-year-old student of the St Monica’s Senior High School (SHS) at Mampong in the Ashanti Region has been attributed partly to negligence on the part of the management of the school.
The student, Patience Amanyi, reported sick but the housemistress, members whose duties were to take care of the student reportedly did not show interest in her wellbeing.
She stayed on campus for some days, left virtually in the care of her colleague students.
The students took her to the Mampong Hospital after some days, on a day her condition had worsened, and she died same day.
The family of the student has demanded more answers on circumstances surrounding the death of Patience as their information points to negligence on the part of the management as a contributory factor to her death.
School board investigation
Graphic Online understands, the Board of the school, after a preliminary investigation has established that the headmistress does not know what goes on in the various dormitories.
“She does not have close contact with the students, there are NO meetings with the House mistresses, the lines of communications between the heads are inadequate,” a report from a meeting between the Board and the old students association seen by Graphic Online has stated.
The board has, therefore, recommended a reshuffle of the housemistresses, proper record keeping, frequent House meetings with students, an audit of the state of the washrooms among other recommendations.
A report presented to the Board by the headmistress has been dismissed on the grounds that, it contained a lot of discrepancies and inaccurate information.
What happened?
Graphic Online understands that on Saturday, May 13, 2023, Patience Amanyi asked for an exeat to go to the hospital complaining of headache, as the school infirmary is normally closed on weekends.
The exeat was reportedly granted, and Patience went to the Mampong General Hospital unaccompanied by any adult, her parents were also not informed, according to a report by the school’s Board seen by Graphic Online.
When Patience returned from the hospital, because the exeat form had not been signed by the hospital, the House mistress reportedly refused to accept it and asked the student to keep it.
The House mistress reportedly told the Board that she thought Patience would return to the hospital to have it signed.
At the hospital Patience was reportedly given treatment for malaria and paracetamol.
Exeat
In the meantime, Patience still felt unwell, and was even vomiting, and was not given an exeat to return to the hospital, according to the report seen by Graphic Online.
She could not stay in the dormitory so had to be carried to classes. One of her teachers noted in class on Monday [May 15] that she was very sick and asked her to return to the hospital.
On Tuesday, May 16, Patience returned to the second housemistress, for an exeat.
The Housemistress told her to ask the Prefect accompanying her to the hospital to pick the exeat.
The said Housemistress reportedly did not even see Patience and gave the exeat to the Prefect through the window because, according to her, she was busy, the Board report said.
At 7:30pm the said prefect carried Patience on her back from Roseveare House to the school gate. There were two other students who accompanied the prefect to take Patience to the hospital. The girls called the Housemistress from the hospital and reported that the case was serious. She then informed the Senior Housemistress who then called the Assistant Head for Domestic, and all of them went to the hospital to see the student. They were at the hospital till she was declared dead around 9:30pm.
Doctor’s diagnosis
The doctor’s diagnosis stated “Hypoglycaemia, Acute infective gastroenteritis with severe dehydration complicated by shock, Cerebral malaria with focal seizures.”
The doctor also indicated that Patience came in, comatose.
It was at this moment that the school authorities then informed the family, who came to collect the body and the belongings to Obuasi the next day.
Board observations
When the school board together with the old students association leadership, asked to interview, the prefect and the girls who accompanied Patience to the hospital, the management told them that the students had left the campus, however, the management could not give a proper account of their whereabouts, since none of them had given them an exeat and their parents had not even been called to find out their whereabouts.
Patience laid to rest
Patience has since been laid to rest.