30 Years Of Deception: Quack Midwife’s Shocking Trail Of Deaths And Malpractices Exposed
After 18 months of investigative reporting at a private health facility in Accra, The Fourth Estate has uncovered a frightening case of ‘Matron Gaga’, an unlicensed midwife whose 30-year track of malpractice has resulted in numerous medical accidents including the death of at least two newborn babies.
June 24, 2020: the case of Kate
Inside the labour ward of New Generation Medical Centre, a private clinic in the South Odorkor Estates at Sakaman in Accra, Kate Tetteh (not her real name), a heavily pregnant beautician was writhing and groaning in pain from her first labour pangs. As her contractions peaked, her screaming grew louder.
But the nurses on duty found that funny: they laughed out loud.
“They were even teasing me,” Kate, 28, recalls in disgust.
All she wanted at that point was professional assistance, as one would expect from a health facility. What she got at New Generation was derision. Her request for her fiancé and her mother to be allowed in to soothe her was summarily dismissed.
The ordeal became even heavier than she anticipated.
The beautician says she felt like she was between life and death, alone. She says the professionals who should have been her helpers became her tormentors.
“When my baby’s head was visible, the midwife who was the one delivering me wasn’t around.”
The ‘midwife’ in question is Francisca Quaye alias Matron Gaga. Matron Gaga had apparently taken some time off her busy cooking preoccupation to visit the nuisance of her patient who was admitted to the facility to deliver a baby. Kate says Matron Gaga walked into the labour ward to check on her holding a cooking utensil in one hand and vegetables in the other.
“When she returned, she was holding a knife and an onion or something; I don’t remember. I didn’t see her again for like five minutes.”
Kate’s ordeal and loss
Kate, who lives in Accra, says she first visited the New Generation Medical Centre on June 24, 2020. According to her antenatal records, she had a normal pregnancy, with her baby kicking from time to time as expected. According to her scan, she could deliver any day between June 19 and 30,2020.
And then a strange thing happened: even though Kate still had a week left within the expected delivery window, Matron Gaga, contrary to all established medical practice, decided to artificially induce labour by prescribing the oral medication Cytotec.
And then she asked the confused expectant mother to go back home.
Cytotec is used to induce labor in women. It works by softening the cervix to allow easier dilation and producing contractions. In most cases, Cytotec is a safe and reliable medication that can make labour easier for women in distress when administered correctly. The Reproductive Health Centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital however warned in 2011 that Cytotec abuse can cause infertility and even death.
Kate recalls the ordeal that ensued after the unnecessary artificial induction.
“I felt weak, [but Matron Gaga] asked me to go home, [and] roam until I felt pain, then I could come. I boarded a taxi and went home. But I couldn’t sleep. The pain was unbearable. I was feeling the pain and I called her and she said I should come when I felt more pain. I went through pain from 10 am to 6 pm”.
Kate says she cried until her neigbour convinced her to return to the clinic. Then her nightmares began.