Femi Ashekun/
Award-winning Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has confirmed that she authored a powerful statement accusing a Lagos-based hospital of complicity in the death of her 21-month-old son, following what she described as grave medical negligence during a routine procedure.
ARISE News verified the authenticity of the statement after reaching out to Adichie’s media team, who confirmed that she personally wrote it.
According to her representatives, the statement was initially shared privately with family members and a small circle of close friends before becoming public.
In the statement, Adichie said her son, Nkanu, “would be alive today if not for an incident” at Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital, located at 293 Younis Bashorun Street, Jide Oki Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, on 6 January.
“We were in Lagos for Christmas,” she wrote, explaining that Nkanu initially appeared to have “just a cold” which later developed into “a very serious infection”.
He was admitted to Atlantis Hospital and was scheduled to travel to the United States the following day, accompanied by travelling doctors.
According to Adichie, a medical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore was already on standby to receive her son.
She said the US-based team had requested a lumbar puncture and an MRI, while doctors in Nigeria also decided to insert a central line in preparation for his flight.
“Atlantis hospital referred us to Euracare Hospital, which was said to be the best place to have the procedures done,” she stated.
Adichie recounted that on the morning of January 6, she and her family left Atlantis Hospital for Euracare, with Nkanu carried in his father’s arms. She said she was informed that her son would need to be sedated to prevent movement during the MRI and central line procedure.
“I was waiting just outside the theatre. I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theatre and immediately knew something had happened,” she wrote.
She said she was later told that Nkanu had been administered “too much propofol” by the anaesthesiologist, had become unresponsive, and was resuscitated. However, she added that events quickly escalated.
“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.”
Adichie alleged that her son was never properly monitored after the administration of the sedative.
“It turns out that Nkanu was NEVER monitored after being given too much propofol,” she wrote. “The anaesthesiologist had just casually carried Nkanu on his shoulder to the theatre, so nobody knows when exactly Nkanu became unresponsive.”
She questioned the hospital’s procedures and described the conduct of the anaesthesiologist as grossly negligent.
“How can you sedate a sick child and neglect to monitor him?” she asked. “Later, after the ‘central line’ procedure, the anaesthesiologist casually switched off Nkanu’s oxygen and again decided to carry him on his shoulder to the ICU!”
In one of the strongest parts of the statement, Adichie declared, “The anaesthesiologist was CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child. No proper protocol was followed.”
She added that her son had arrived at the hospital “unwell but stable” and was expected to travel abroad for advanced care the next day.
“We came to conduct basic procedures. And suddenly, our beautiful little boy was gone forever,” she wrote. “It is like living your worst nightmare. I will never survive the loss of my child.”
Adichie further claimed that the hospital may have been aware of prior incidents involving the same anaesthesiologist.
“We have now heard about two previous cases of this same anaesthesiologist overdosing children,” she said. “Why did Euracare allow him to keep working? This must never happen to another child.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of Africa’s most internationally recognised writers, known for novels such as Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, as well as her global advocacy on feminism and social justice.
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