Monrovia – Built by the Americans, the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia has struggled to improve its image since the end of the Liberian civil war in 2003.
That is proving to be futile as recent trend of events has started to blur the image of the hospital which was once boasted off as one of the best in West Africa.
In the center of this blurry image is Daylue Goah, former Head of Public Relations of the acclaimed hospital. Goah is a journalist who shot to fame when he was beaten by UNMIL officers when he worked as a reporter for the New Democrat newspaper.
The former top official of the hospital has gone on binge, releasing sensitive information and documents of the hospital. These documents have given outsider a scoop of what’s going on behind the walls of the hospital.
Appearing on a local radio talk show, Goah claimed that the hospital has carried on series of mass undignified burial of bodies that are not claimed by family members.
“Things are horrible at the hospital and we have to speak out,” he said. “Somebody needs to talk for things to change.”
Going further, he skirted about the mysterious disappearance of Ballah Scott, a former employee of the hospital who stayed on to steer the ship, earning his stripes and working his way up. Scott fell ill and was hospitalized in the very hospital he labored for. His lifeless body was found behind the shrubs in the back of the hospital.
Digging deeper, Goah said his former boss, Dr. Wannie Mae Scott-McDonald and others stood idly when the bleeding body of Shaki Kamara, a 13 year-old boy who was shot by state security forces during the Ebola outbreak in the aftermath of a quarantine of the West Point Community in Monrovia was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Kamara had been shot when he got caught up in a protest by residents of the slum community of West Point who were protesting quarantine by the government following the ransacking of the N. V. Massaquoi Public School which was initially used as a holding center for Ebola patients.
Gotta Let Go
Hours following his appearance on the talk show, Goah claimed he was fired of his job in the United States of America where he currently resides by his boss with who he had enjoyed an excellent relationship with. He said he is terrified by his boss’s decision to let him go.
He claimed his boss might be working on the demands of some higher ups from Liberia who want to see him suffer in the United States as he is also concerned about the safety of his family back home.
The hospital, it seems, is not taking the punch lying down. Releasing a string of emails, it shows the desperation of a man trying to cling on to his job at immeasurable cost. In one of the emails, Goah begged the hospital numerously to help him out with a ticket to fly home from vacation in the U.S. and resume duties at the hospital.
In a communication dated December 11, 2014, Goah informed the JFK Management that he had to overstay in the United States where he had gone on vacation because he had to be quarantined for 21 days.
“As you will see in the attached document, my 21 days monitoring period is now over and I am good to go, making it possible for me to rearrange my flight for the 26 of December and arrive on the 27 because they are the only flexible dates for flight from this end to Liberia,” he wrote.
However, in another March 25, 2015 email addressed to a certain Munah Tarpeh at the hospital, Goah said he was accepted at a medical institution in Minnesota and was therefore requesting a study leave to remain in the States and do his nursing program.
Going dirty
Following the release of the emails, Goah again threatened that any more emails from the JFK he will go dirty and release more information.
In a post Goah stated that he has more sensitive information about the JFK and will release them should the hospital make public anymore communication relating to him.
Goah’s allegation against his former employer is unbelievable but critics have pointed to recent revelations by visitors to the hospital who said their visit to the hospital gave them the jitters.
Mr. John H.T. Stewart, Jr., Commissioner of the erstwhile TRC said he feared the night he spent in the hospital following a bout of stomach complications.
“And I must confess that I kept vigil through the night for fear that I could disappear and be found later as with the case of Ballah scott, a long serving employee who was admitted but disappeared and found later.” Mr. Stewart posted
During the heat of the outbreak of the Ebola, staff at the hospital allegedly refused to treat the daughter of Rep. Edward Forh whose daughter died from an asthmatic attack.
Whichever way the tide flows, the war between the hospital and its former employee seems far from ending. Perhaps a visit to the dark room will be needed to clear the blurry image of a hospital struggling to rise to prewar levels.
Montserrado County and Democratic for Democratic Change LawmakerAcarous Gray has meanwhile written the House of Representatives to investigate the startling revelations regarding the JFK.
