Nigerian author Chimamanda says Lagos hospital delaying inquest into son's death

Nigerian bestselling novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Saturday accused a Lagos hospital of attempting to obstruct an inquest into the death of her 21-month-old son at the facility six months ago.

Nkanu Nnamdi died on January 7 at Euracare Multispecialist Hospital, where he had been taken for diagnostic tests including MRI before he was due to travel to the United States for specialised care.

The post on her Instagram page was her first public comment since the death.

Adichie who lives in the United States but was in Nigeria for the Christmas holidays published a letter she wrote to the hospital, dated April 16.

‘Delaying tactics’

In it, she wrote: "to have Nkanu gone so cruelly, so unfairly, so carelessly, had brought an inexpressible pain."

The coroner's inquest had been due to open on April 14, she wrote on Saturday.

"Instead Euracare decided to deploy delaying tactics," she added.

"It was Euracare which first applied for an inquest in January, stating that our son's death was unexpected and an inquest was in their interest because of 'rumours of negligence.'"

‘Precious son’

"Yet they have stalled and muddied and obfuscated. If this is how Euracare manages a crisis, it is little wonder it mismanaged our precious son's care."

AFP has reached out to Euracare for comment.

In her letter, she said the medical director had told her that the anaesthesiologist had given her son "'too much propofol'" to sedate him during the MRI scan, which had caused "respiratory and cardiac arrest".

She said the hospital had issued a death certificate claiming her son had died from meningitis.

The hospital has previously denied any wrongdoing.

The boy's death reignited debates about the poor state of Nigeria's healthcare system.