Sunday, January 11, 2026 - Renounced author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has accused a Lagos-based hospital of negligence leading to the demise of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu.
In a personal statement released to family members and close friends,
Chimamanda gave a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding his de@th.
The statement reads
"My son would be alive today
if not for an incident at Euracare Hospital on January 6th.
We were in Lagos for Christmas.
Nkanu had what we first thought was just a cold, but soon turned into a very
serious infection and he was admitted to Atlantis hospital.
He was to travel to the US the
next day, January 7th, accompanied by Travelling Doctors. A team at Johns
Hopkins was waiting to receive him in Baltimore. The Hopkins team had asked for
a lumbar puncture test and an MRI. The Nigerian team had also decided to put in
a 'central line' (used to administer iv medications) in preparation for Nkanu's
flight. Atlantis hospital referred us to Euracare Hospital, which was said to
be the best place to have the procedures done.
The morning of the 6th, we left
Atlantis hospital for Euracare, Nkanu carried in his father's arms. We were
told he would need to be sedated to prevent him from moving during the MRI and
the 'central line' procedure.
I was waiting just outside the
theater. I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theater and immediately
knew something had happened.
A short time later, Dr M came out
and told me Nkanu had been given too much propofol by the anesthesiologist, had
become unresponsive and was quickly resuscitated. But suddenly Nkanu was on a
ventilator, he was intubated and placed in the ICU. The next thing I heard was
that he had seizures. Cardiac arrest. All these had never happened before. Some
hours later, Nkanu was gone
It turns out that Nkanu was NEVER
monitored after being given too much propofol. The anesthesiologist had just
casually carried Nkanu on his shoulder to the theater, so nobody knows when
exactly Nkanu became unresponsive.
How can you sedate a sick
child and neglect to monitor him? Later, after the 'central line' procedure,
the anesthesiologist casually switched off Nkanu's oxygen and again decided to
carry him on his shoulder to the ICU!
The anesthesiologist was
CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life
of a child. No proper protocol was followed.
We brought in a child who was
unwell but stable and scheduled to travel the next day. We came to conduct
basic procedures. And suddenly, our beautiful little boy was gone forever. It
is like living your worst nightmare. I will never survive the loss of my child.
We have now heard about two
previous cases of this same anesthesiologist overdosing children. Why did
Euracare allow him to keep working? This must never happen to another
child".
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