By Saio Marrah
Augusta Kamara, a nurse at the Shuman Hospital in central Freetown, told the High Court in Freetown on Tuesday 7th May that the late Sinnah Kai Kargbo had already died before she was brought to the hospital.
She said on the day of the incident, 16th October 2022, at about 6 to 7 o’clock in the morning, she was on duty at the hospital attending to patients in the ward when she heard the receptionist calling on nurses and announcing an emergency which they should attend to. The nurse said she then placed some medical instruments in a tray and immediately rushed downstairs.
She said on her way, she met the accused, Bola Nicol at the hospital door, trying to enter. The witness went further to say that the deceased was in a vehicle, placed on the lap of a man in a police, Operational Support Division uniform.
According to her, there was froth oozing out of the mouth of the deceased with a spoon inserted between her teeth.
The court was told that the deceased was motionless with her eyes closed and at that point; the nurse said she pointed a thermometer at her forehead, but it gave no reading so she ordered porters to take the body to the hospital for the doctor to examine her.
The witness said she further observed that her tongue, which was outside her mouth, was swollen and red, and that the deceased was dressed in shorts and polo with no underwear. “I told the porters to place her in a wheelchair, but she was not responding at all. So I then ordered them to bring a stretcher instead as they were struggling to control her body,” the nurse testified.
The witness said the deceased was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where Dr. Bangura examined her.
On their way inside the hospital, the witness said the accused, who appeared to be in distress, told her (witness) that he only met the lady at a club at about 12 midnight before she fell ill. “I then asked him why he didn’t bring her to the hospital immediately?” the witness said.
According to the nurse, the accused was around when the doctor pronounced that Sinnah had died before they reached the hospital and after that conversation, the accused immediately went downstairs and drove one of his two cars out of the hospital compound.
During cross-examination by the lead defence lawyer, Rowland Wright, the witness insisted that she did not use a pulse oximeter when she was examining the deceased in the vehicle before she was taken into the hospital building.
Lawyer Wright then called on the court to bring the Closed Circuit Television footage of the hospital to ascertain whether the nurse did use the pulse oximeter and if the Pulse Oximeter beeped.
The witness also said that she never used Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) on the deceased saying that only medical doctors use that instrument on patients.
She also told the court that she could not tell whether it took about ten minutes when the deceased was brought into the hospital compound before the doctor examined her.
Ikubolaje Nicol is indicted on three counts of conspiracy to commit manslaughter, manslaughter, and perverting the course of justice.
The case resumes Friday 10th May this year.
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