Friday, February 13, 2009

BODIES BROUGHT IN DEAD — KATH CEO (GRAPHIC SPORTS, BACK PAGE)

The management of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) says the four football fans who lost their lives last Sunday did not die at the hospital as being alleged in some quarters.
“They were brought to the hospital dead,” Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Chief Executive of KATH, told the Graphic Sports in an interview in Kumasi yesterday.
Dr Nsiah-Asare said it was absolutely incorrect for anyone or group of people to blame the KATH in any way for the deaths.
He said it was a Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) ambulance that sent the fans to the hospital “and they were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital”.
Dr Nsiah-Asare said the hospital treated 66 people who collapsed at the stadium.
He expressed regret that some people were not ready to learn anything from the May 9, 2001 disaster at the Ohene Djan Stadium.
The Chief Executive was, for instance, not happy about the overcrowding at the Baba Yara Stadium last Sunday and said it was a major contributor to the suffocation and stampede.
“I think that people will have serious questions to answer in due course,” he said.
He noted that the management of the stadium should be given some professional touch to enable the nation benefit from the facility.
Dr Nsiah-Asare stated that it was also regrettable that it took the KATH ambulance about two hours to get the chance to enter the stadium.
He said he had persistently asked the management of Kotoko to support the hospital with some little funds to enable them effectively handle emergencies at the stadium during their matches, but nothing positive had come out of the appeal.

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