It is once again, a state of pandemonium among parents and students following another bout of mysterious Kumasi Academy deaths…
Three more students of Kumasi Academy (aka KUMACA) have been confirmed dead this morning [Tuesday, December 5], bringing the latest Kumasi Academy deaths to six.
According to a Graphic Online report, the death of the students – two females and a male occurred at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology hospital and was confirmed by the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Cassandra Ampofo Twum.
Recall that three year one students of the school died last week. Death of the three students reportedly occurred within 48 hours and a day ahead of the school’s 60th anniversary which was held on Saturday, December 2. Two of the students reportedly died on Thursday morning and evening respectively. While some reports say that the third student died on Friday, others say he died on Saturday after the 60th anniversary celebration.
Parents of one of the deceased students, 17-year-old Fodjour Furgerson Livingstone are threatening to sue the school’s authority for negligence. According to them, the school were busy preparing for their 60th anniversary while neglecting the health conditions of their sick students. Speaking to Citi News, a brother to late Livingstone accused the school of failing to carry out an investigation on earlier deaths which has subsequently led to his brother’s death too.
Late Livingstone who is suspected to have died of meningitis, allegedly contracted the disease when he volunteered to take his classmate who had a suspected case of meningitis to the hospital where he [the classmate] died. He [Livingstone] subsequently developed fever and was initially admitted at the Tafo Government hospital, but was later transferred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where he also died.
Meanwhile, close to 20 other students of the Kumasi Academy are currently on admission at the KNUST hospital while blood samples of the three first-year male students who died last week have been sent to the Noguchi Memorial Research Institute to determine the cause of their death.
Citi News’ Ashanti Regional Correspondent, Hafiz Tijani, also reported that disturbed parents and guardians have already started thronging the school as at Tuesday morning, demanding the release of their children and wards to them. Police officers have also been deployed to the Kumasi Academy to maintain order around the school premises.
It was a state of complete pandemonium after four students of the Kumasi Academy died between the 22nd and 31st of March, 2017. The four students were reportedly granted leave to go home when they took ill, but never returned as they died at the various health facilities where they went to receive treatments, after suffering similar illnesses.
The Kumasi Academy deaths were at the time deemed ‘mysterious’ owing to its nature. Fear-stricken parents and guardians had thronged the school premises owing to the deaths, demanding to be allowed to pick up their children and wards. The students on their own part, also staged a protest, damaging some school properties. It was however, late discovered throough investigations led by the Ghana Health Service in the Ashanti region that the students died of meningitis.
Meanwhile, today’s death incident is the third time in 2017 that Kumasi Academy students are dying in a row, after the ones that occurred in March and last week. Parents are however, calling on the GES to prioritize the issue of public health at the school to prevent such repeating ugly and heartbreaking deaths.
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