Renowned author, Chimamanda Adichie, has accused a Lagos-based hospital over the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu, alleging medical negligence.
According to her team, the message was initially shared privately with close family members and friends before becoming public.
In the statement, Adichie said her son fell ill while the family was in Lagos for the Christmas holidays. What initially appeared to be a mild cold, she explained, quickly developed into a severe infection, leading to his admission at Atlantis Hospital.
She said plans were already in place for Nkanu to be flown to the United States on January 7, accompanied by travelling doctors, where a medical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore was prepared to receive him.
As part of preparations for the journey, doctors requested diagnostic procedures, including an MRI scan and a lumbar puncture, as well as the insertion of a central line. Atlantis Hospital subsequently referred the family to Euracare Hospital, which was recommended for carrying out the procedures.
Adichie recounted that on the morning of January 6, her son was taken to Euracare Hospital and sedated to enable the MRI and central line placement.
While waiting outside the operating theatre, she said she noticed medical staff rushing in, signalling that something had gone wrong.
She was later informed that Nkanu had been administered an excessive dose of the sedative propofol by the anesthesiologist, became unresponsive, and had to be resuscitated.
According to the statement, the child was subsequently placed on a ventilator and admitted to the intensive care unit, where he later suffered seizures and cardiac arrest. He died hours later.
“I saw people, including Dr. M, rushing into the theatre and immediately knew something had happened,” she said.
Adichie recounted that she was later informed her son had been administered an excessive dose of propofol by the anesthesiologist, causing him to become unresponsive.
Although she was told he was resuscitated, Nkanu was subsequently placed on a ventilator, intubated and moved to the Intensive Care Unit.
She said the situation rapidly worsened.
“The next thing I heard was that he had seizures. Cardiac arrest. All these had never happened before,” Adichie stated, adding that her son died a few hours later.
The author alleged that Nkanu was not properly monitored after being sedated and that the anesthesiologist carried him into the theatre without adequate supervision, making it unclear when he became unresponsive.
“How can you sedate a sick child and neglect to monitor him?” she asked.
She further alleged that after the central line procedure, the anesthesiologist switched off her son’s oxygen and carried him to the ICU without following proper medical protocol.
Describing the incident as criminal negligence, Adichie accused the anesthesiologist of being “fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child.”
“We brought in a child who was unwell but stable and scheduled to travel the next day,” she said. “We came to conduct basic procedures. And suddenly, our beautiful little boy was gone forever.”
Adichie also claimed that the family has since learned of at least two previous cases in which the same anesthesiologist allegedly overdosed children, raising questions about why he was allowed to continue practising.
“Why did Euracare allow him to keep working?” she asked. “This must never happen to another child.”
