As from the part one of this article, Fekah returned to Ghana after his first meeting with his brother, Andrews Boateng. He communicated his situation to his family, but with the exception of his mother. At this point, it had become clear that Andy will stay in the Milpark Hospital for a while towards his recovery.
Andy’s hip-hops in South African hospitals
Andy stayed at Milpark for 79 days [2 months, 18 days]. On 17th July 2014, he was transferred to Clayton House. This ‘House’, run by the ClaytonCare Group, provides early rehabilitation of medically complex patient, the ventilated patient,, and post-surgery recovery. Andy was going to be here for nearly a year.
Andy ended the year 2014 in this facility, and traveled almost half of 2015. Sometime in June 2015, Andy was moved “on grounds of the high cost involved at Clayton and other reasons” to Serenity Nursing Home in Randburg, Johannesburg. This Serenity move was something Andy’s family objected to. It must be noted that the hospital bills were being taken care of by Baker Hughes or Andy’s healthcare plan at Baker Hughes.
In one of the correspondents between Andrews’s brother, Joseph Fekah and Baker Hughes, Joseph requested that Baker Hughes orders for the removal of his brother to a hospital with proper rehabilitation facility. He stated in the correspondent that “Andy has suffered serious brain injuries. What he needs is an adequate rehabilitation program tailored to his condition to help him rehabilitate to a normal life. What Andy needs is to be cared by specialized neuro-physicians, specialized physiotherapists, [and] speech therapists etc… Serenity Nursing home does not provide any of the above. Serenity Nursing Home does not have any adequate equipment to properly work towards my brother’s rehabilitation”.
In a telephone interview with Joseph, he explained that “his situation over here was fast deteriorating. This Serenity Nursing Home is a place for the aged and stuffs like that, and Andy wasn’t aged.
I cited other correspondents to Baker Hughes from Joseph which was still demanding that Andy is moved from the facility after some other mails were not yielding the results.
‘Unconscious’ Andy is injured at Serenity
Andy experienced a shock at the facility which was supposed to care for him when he fell and injured his forehead. In a correspondent cited from Serenity Nursing Home, the facility explained the incident that “… on 30 July 2015, Mr. Boateng had a fall off his bed. It appears that the nurse had turned her back to the bed to rinse a cloth at the basin and the cot side was down, and Mr. Boateng rolled off the bed. He had a minor laceration to his left forehead. Dr. Shein was called and he came and assessed the patient on the evening of the 30th and came in on the next morning to suture the laceration. There was no apparent change to the patient’s neurological condition. The sutures were removed 7 days later, and the wound has healed very well. I did deal with the incident appropriately, and the nurse on duty was disciplined. He has not had any new infections and physically appears stable. Unfortunately, his level of awareness and responsiveness has not changed. Care Plan and Medication remains unchanged”.
Ghana’s South African Mission Intervenes
Adamant Baker Hughes would not want to move Andy despite his deteriorating condition.
“That facility was cheaper in terms of cost, so you can understand”, Joseph Fekah said in the telephone interview.
A movement was started first on social media in South Africa by the persons who were close to the development. Petitions followed for concerned citizens home and abroad to sign.
Back home in Ghana, the state of Andy and his ill-treatment caught the attention of the media.
The then Foreign Affairs Minister, now UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to the African Union, Hannah Serwah Tetteh, ordered Ghana’s Mission in South Africa to take over the matter.
She tweeted, three months after Andrews fell and got injured, on October 12 2015 that, “now that we have a report from our mission in South Africa, the Foreign Ministry will take up the case of Andrews Boateng with Baker Hughes”.
“So on 20th October 2015, Mr. Edward Kwofi, on the orders of the then Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa Kwesi Ahwoi, together with representatives of the Baker Hughes [HR Afua Yeboah] and the insurance company taking care of the bills of Andy, met at Ghana’s mission office in Pretoria to discuss the development. It was here efforts were made to move Andy from Serenity Nursing Home to Netcare Sunninghil Hospital in Sandton” Fekah explained.
Andy was moved from Serenity Nursing Home to Sunninghil on 2nd November 2015. It was after Mr. Edward Kwofie from the Ghana mission office had followed up to know his state that ended the High Commission’s involvement. It was the last time the mission spoke to us, Fekah explained.
From one Netcare to another
Sources close to Andy in South Africa explained that Sunninghil, after five months of care, and on the advice of Dr. Ranchod, a Neurologist, recommended that he is sent to a rehabilitation center because he was said to be contracting infections at Sunninghill, and there were no facilities for rehabilitation. Andy was moved on June 5 in 2016 to the Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital, a member of the Netcare family.
Baker Hughes declines request for treatment in Europe
Andy’s situation, according to people close to him can improve faster if he is sent to a European hospital for extensive care. But according to Fekah, Baker Hughes’s Human Resource Manager in Ghana Afua Yeboah, declined the request on the grounds that, “the facilities and doctors you will have in Europe is same as what is here in South Africa”. But I am not much surprised because the HR at the time of Andy’s movement from Serenity Nursing Home said we should bring him to a facility in Ghana because they are good. So I was not much surprised about this objection to the Europe treatment request”
Baker Hughes wants Andy’s Contract terminated
In May 2018, the legal team for Baker Hughes sent documents from its offices in Accra to Fekah, who now stays in the Brong Ahafo Region for his signature to legally bring an end to his younger brother’s contract with the company. Fekah and his elder sister declined to sign, as that will mean an end to payment of his salary whilst Andy is yet to recover. The documents, copies of which were sent to the legal team working on other legalities are yet to be signed or declined by counsel for the injured young Andy.
Baker Hughes ends Visa application for Fekah
Since the accident in 2014, Baker Hughes had been securing travelling visas for Joseph Fekah to visit his brother in hospitals in South Africa. Fekah, when he arrives should feed himself till his visa expires and come back.
“There were times I walked from the Ghana Airport to my hotel kilometers apart because Baker Hughes did not send their usual car to pick me from the airport to my hotel. My family has had to work on my transportation from Accra to our village, some 6 hour drive in the Brong Ahafo Region because Baker Hughes was not considering all that expenses” Fekah explained.
On November 16, 2016, Baker Hughes ended the application of travelling Visa for Fekah to look after his brother. Lacking the financial strength to acquire one on his own, the November 2016 trip was going to be Fekah’s last trip to his younger brother. It’s been almost 2 years, and every communication to his brother has been through a benevolent friend who goes to look after him at the Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital.
Andy’s current state
After over four years, Andy remains quiet in bed, unable to speak, move and eat on his own. He is still under the control of “machines”.
“Today, he is a bit better. He is able to nod his head in agreement to some issues and in disagreement of same” a source close to Andy at the Netcare Rehab Hospital disclosed.
Until Andrews Boateng is rescued by some miraculous intervention, he may lose his life in a foreign land, without benefiting from any compensation for the injuries he suffered whiles in the line of duty for a foreign oil firm that was underpaying him, and denying him the benefits he ought to have enjoyed whiles carrying out international assignments, although he was officially employed to work in Ghana.
This is just one of the painful stories caused largely by poor labour systems in Ghana, leading to the maltreatment of many local workers particularly in the country’s growing oil sector. Aside from poor wages and reduced benefits, they suffer all forms of dehumanizing treatment because the government does not care much per its actions.
All this is happening despite the existence of the local content law that should ensure better treatment for locals in the industry largely run by expatriate firms.
–
By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo | Ghana | Citinewsroom