By Fatou Sillah
Lamin Darboe a resident of Tanji Village in the West Coast Region, had an interview with Kerr Fatou in which he alleged that his Four-Year-old daughter, Aisha, died from taking the Indian-made syrup he purchased from the Pharmacy at Tanji Health Centre.
“My Daughter fell sick and we took her to the Clinic. They ran some tests on her and told us that she had malaria. They prescribe some drugs for her including Paracetamol Syrup and other drugs. After taking the drugs the sickness did not get any better. My wife left with the Kid for my Mother’s house in Brikama, and later told me that the little girl was vomiting what looks like blood.
“She was later admitted to the Brikama Hospital but she did not urinate the whole night. I informed the doctor about it. He asked me to wait a little bit and see if she will urinate but yet still she did not, that was the time we went to the laboratory. The doctor then informed me that this is an emergency, and we need to take her to the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul.
“Upon arrival at the EFSTH they took her to the lab again, and we were informed that she has a kidney problem. We were there for a couple of days. Every day they took her to the lab for Checkups but all we get is that she is not getting any better. We were also told that her blood and her urine got mixed up, they tried cleaning it and they also fixed a pipe for her to be able to urinate but to no avail and she later lost her life.
He added that it was confirmed to him that his daughter died from the syrup she consumed
“When we get to the Brikama Hospital they asked me about the drug I gave her. I took a picture of the medicine on my phone because after buying it I asked the pharmacist whether this is not the same syrup that was killing children but she said no that syrup is banned. We are not selling it anymore.
“When the doctors asked for the back of the medicine I asked my wife to snap it and send it to me. The EFSTH doctors called the people of the Ministry of Health and they confirm that it was the Indian maiden syrup
“They even send people to Tanji to confirm and the pharmacist confirmed that she sell the drug to me but it got mixed with the other drugs. The drug is with the ministry of health they didn’t t give it back,”.
When we asked if he took any actions after his daughter’s death of his child he said, he called the ministry of health and they informed him that they are still investigating the matter, he said he also went to the victim’s center to register there.