A medical doctor and sister of late engineer Charles Henry Amissah has dragged three major health facilities, several health workers, and the Attorney General to court over what she calls a series of negligent actions that caused her brother’s death after a road crash in Accra.
Dr. Matilda Amissah, acting as administratrix of Charles Henry Amissah’s estate, is demanding GH¢20 million in general damages at the Accra High Court over the February 2026 incident that sparked national anger and fresh debate on Ghana’s recurring “No Bed Syndrome.”
The case lists the Ghana Police Hospital, Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, multiple doctors and nurses from the facilities, plus the Attorney General’s Department.
According to the writ filed at the High Court’s General Jurisdiction Division, Charles Henry Amissah, a 29-year-old Electronic and Automation Engineer with Promasidor Ghana Limited, was hit in a hit-and-run on the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Overpass around 10:30 p.m., on February 6, 2026.
The suit states that after Amissah did not return home, relatives lodged a missing person report at the Adentan Police Station. Four days later, Nima Police Station officers contacted the family to say an accident victim had been taken to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
Dr. Amissah told the court that when they reached the hospital mortuary, the family saw the body in a decomposed state outside the cold room, covered in maggots. The writ claims the National Ambulance Service first took the injured engineer to the Police Hospital after a distress call.
But staff there allegedly told ambulance crews there were no beds available. The plaintiff says ambulance officers begged medical staff to at least give first aid because the victim was bleeding profusely, yet no emergency stabilization was done.
The suit further claims the patient was then sent to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital at Ridge, where another plea for urgent care was allegedly rejected on similar grounds of no beds.
According to the filing, the ambulance later headed to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where the plaintiff alleges medical staff again refused immediate treatment despite requests from ambulance personnel to attend to the patient on the stretcher.
The suit says Charles Henry Amissah went into cardiac arrest around 12:50 a.m. and was declared dead at Korle-Bu. The plaintiff contends her brother stayed alive for over two hours while being shuttled between hospitals and could have lived if emergency measures had been given quickly. Court papers list the autopsy findings as deep lacerations to the right upper arm, severe blood loss, fractures and trauma-related complications from exsanguination.
Dr. Amissah accuses the hospitals and health workers of negligence, including failure to do emergency triage, failure to stabilize the patient, failure to carry out vital checks, and failure to prioritise urgent care despite his critical state.
She also alleges that post-mortem handling of the body added to the family’s trauma because decomposition meant the body could not be laid in state during funeral rites. The suit follows the conclusions of a government-appointed committee led by Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, which probed the circumstances of the death.
The committee found earlier this month that failures by medical staff at the three hospitals contributed to the engineer’s death and that prompt emergency action could have saved him.I
ts report noted major gaps in emergency response protocols, poor coordination among institutions, and failures by clinicians to deliver immediate life-saving care even though the patient reached all three facilities alive.
The committee also urged disciplinary steps against several health professionals cited in the suit and proposed wider reforms to Ghana’s emergency healthcare system.Dr. Amissah insists the defendants’ actions brought huge emotional and financial distress to the family, especially since the deceased had become the main support for their mother after their father died in 2019.The defendants have eight days after service of the writ to file an appearance or risk judgment being given against them in default.
