Negligence in private hospitals in Cameroon on the rise?

The most recent case which has already been taken to the military court is that of Sergeant Mouyakan A Mougnol Willy who passed away on April 14 2022.

The Rapid Intervention Batallion (BIR) soldier was transferred from the Man O War Bay hospice to the Douala General hospital before being taken to the IDIMED clinic for neurosurgery.

Relatives of the soldier say he had been sent to Douala for a consultation and not surgery. They also say the anesthetist, whose name CNA got as Dr Binam, only checked for the patient’s weight and no further interrogation was done prior to surgery. No history of allergies or known medication he was on was dived into at all.

After surgery, Sergeant Mouyakan A Mougnol Willy was brought back to the ICU intubated and unconscious. The only answer Dr Binam reportedly had for his worried siblings was that he had not fallen asleep on the usual anesthesia dosage and so he had doubled it. The doctor then left his patient unconscious and never returned. He only reportedly gave instructions on phone that he be transferred to the general hospital. It was in front of the emergency unit of this hospital that the sergeant died while still in the ambulance.

The family has taken the matter to the Douala first instance military court. Why was Sergeant Mouyakan A Mougnol Willy suddenly taken to surgery whereas he was supposed to be taken for a regular consultation? Why did the anesthetist not do a better job at taking medical history relevant to the procedure for a better choice of anesthesia? Why was the patient left with nurses whereas he was still unconscious and intubated? Why did it take so long for the patient to be referred to a better hospital? Was he even not operated at the general hospital? So many questions the family wants answered.

This is not the first time medical negligence is pointed as the cause of death in Douala. Just a few weeks back, April 9 2022 to be precise, 5 years old Ilyana Tresor died under similar circumstances at the Polyclinique Archange in Bonapriso, Douala. The little girl’s family said an inadequate dose of anesthesia had been administered because the anesthetist had thought (wrongly) that she was ten years old.