God speaks to us in a loud voice all the time, we only have to listen and obey Him and we will always be at peace.

The story of my life at Korle Bu is best understood when told in the reverse. I could start with the last maneuver that was used in an attempt to terminate my medical practice all together,  and end the story with my entry into Korle Bu to start my residency training, but today, I want to share some incidents I hold dear.

I have always said I needed spiritual strength and courage to remain focused and sail through the turmoil that rocked my journey in Korle Bu and God gave that to me abundantly.

If I had failed the many young men and women who looked up to me for their professional and academic growth, I would have deserved some of the things that came my way.

Let me start with the Dr. Korsinah case trial.

Dr. Korsinah was an OB & GY resident who developed vague abdominal pains in the night and was brought to the Surgical/Medical Emergency Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital at about 4.00am.

He was received and managed by the physicians.

However, at about 4.00pm that day, the physicians had still not made a diagnosis. They therefore referred him to the surgical team.

My residents received the patient and admitted him to the ward with a provisional diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

My attention was drawn to the patient some time between 5.00pm and 6.00pm that day. The findings, I noticed, did not fit acute appendicitis so I requested for an ultrasound scan and instructed that he should still be observed for more signs.

Indeed, the ultrasound did not point to appendicitis either.

Since I had worked the whole day from 7.30am when I gave a tutorial to students, to visiting patients at the clinic, and having another tutorial, I was hungry and tired.

I left the hospital at about 8.30pm after monitoring this patient the whole day.

At about 11.00pm, my senior resident called to inform me that the pains were back and he thinks we have to go to theatre. I accepted his view and asked that I should be called when theatre was ready.

I had just finished taking supper not long before the call came, so I sat in my sofa waiting to be alerted and in the process fell asleep.

When I woke up around 4.00am, I was told the surgery had been done at 2.00am and the team had left.

He had sub-acute intestinal obstruction from an adhesion band which the senior resident divided. This is a simple operation within the limits of the senior resident.

When I got to work in the morning, I went to check on the patient in the recovery ward and he was well.

Shortly after I left for the Thursday morning scientific meeting, the patient died after he asked for the commode to move his bowel. According to sources, in the process, he complained of difficulty in breathing and suddenly died.

Subsequently, the Ethics and Professionalism Committee formed by Korle Bu was asked to investigate this case.

I was invited to the sitting only once during which time, the Chairman spend the greater part of the process accusing me of being the cause of the death of this patient.

The only reason given was that if I had operated on the patient personally, he would not have died.

I honestly could not believe this since the cause of death was not from technical failure of the surgery.

The initial conclusion from the committee was for me to be referred to the Medical and Dental Council for my license to be withdrawn.

This was later changed to a reprimand. I responded to the CEO’s letter reprimanding me, after which he wrote to suspend the case.

To say I was disappointed in the recommendation by the Chairman of the Committee is an understatement.

But as if fate was playing a prank on me, I had to face this Committee again.

Unfortunately, it was another death case. Mind you, both victims were doctors and as usual, I was found guilty.

Allow me to go into details.

The second case was more absurd than the first one. A doctor with terrible anal fissure, which prevented him from going to toilet, resulting in his constipation for two weeks, was introduced to me by my senior resident as his uncle. He asked me for help and I agreed.

We took this man to theatre and under local Anaesthesia and procedural sedation and analgesia, a generous lateral sphincterotomy was done for him.

After his review the following day, this doctor self-discharged because he was no longer constipating and felt good.

I did not see him again. My senior resident also went to the sixth floor of the Surgical Department after his uncle had left to complete the documentations for his discharge.

The uncle returned one and half to two years later with vague abdominal symptoms to see my boss. A CT scan was done which picked a Caecal Tumor and he underwent surgery on a Saturday, privately.

My senior resident informed me the following Monday morning that his uncle, whom I operated upon sometime ago, had been operated upon again over the weekend for caecal tumor.

He was in the recovery ward, so I asked that we should go and visit him. While there I asked that we review him and report to our boss.

I did not see him again but he died a week or so later.

This case was again investigated and I was invited to help with the investigations. The Chairman of the Committee did not mince words when I appeared.

He put the blame on me and called me a bad doctor for not diagnosing the Caecal Tumor one and half to two years earlier.

No explanation could let this man reason up. His approach was never an investigation but to pronounce me guilty on appearance at his sitting.

To this day, his closing remarks to me after the meeting keep ringing in my ears. He was of the view that my review of the patient whom I did not operate upon was a direct contribution to his demise.

"We don’t need you, we don't need such people here," he said.

The intervention that led to my appointment as a lecturer at UGMS

One morning when I arrived at a ward on the second floor of the Surgical Department after my duties, my house officer (CEO of Medicas Hospital) informed me of a patient who had intestinal obstruction and has refused to accept an NG tube.

His description however took me to the wrong patient. But this woman from Dabala, who I wrongly went to was later diagnosed with right perinephritic abscess that we had to drain through a laparotomy since we did not know what caused it.

She is a politician and a philanthropist. Her husband, Mr Agyekum was Dr Martin Kyere’s classmate in Bechem Secondary school.

The woman was lying close to the sluice room and did not want to be there. She asked her husband to talk to me so she could be sent to the sixth floor.

She also requested for me to take on her case but I declined her request because I did not have a diagnosis on her yet. I also refused to send her to the sixth floor since I might forget about her.

When I declined their request, they persisted and went behind my back to talk to my boss, Prof Clegg-Lamptey who immediately transferred her to the sixth floor. The husband requested that he takes special care of his wife.

Prof Clegg-Lamptey told them that that was my responsibility.

After a week of investigation, we got to know she had a right perinepheric abscess that needed to be drained.

I informed the woman about the diagnosis and the treatment plan. She asked if I could invite a particular urologist to be part of the surgery since I mentioned that the sickness was around her right kidney. I told her that getting that person was not a problem at all.

The urologist accepted my invitation and joined in the surgery. The operation was done by three surgeons, my resident being the third.

The urologist had worked on Chief Ali of Tuba, who was shot in the groin over a land dispute issue. Mrs Agyekum was very impressed with the urologist’s work on Chief Ali and so wanted him to be part of her own surgery, for assurance that her right kidney will be saved.

While she was on admission on the sixth floor, I visited her during my rounds twice everyday and anytime she wanted to talk to me she called.

I was once by her bed side when Prof Naaeder came to talk to me about an amount of US$1,000 I was to raise to add to the US$1,000 share of his money from government to enable me go to Senegal to present my research papers.

I was a Fellow but was always denied the money which came from Government for all WACS fellows. When Prof Naaeder left, the woman asked me who he was and what the money he was talking about was meant for.

I told her Prof was my teacher and then explained what the money was to be used for.

She recovered well and was discharged. She invited me to her house several times to visit her but I refused.

One Saturday morning she called, informing me that she was at Korle Bu and wanted directions to my house. She brought me the US$1,000 that enabled me to travel to Senegal that year for the WACS conference.

Upon my return, I went to thank her. She told me about some information she heard about me while she was on admission and wanted to know what the issues were.

After our conversation, her statement was, “why do people still think Ghana is for them and they can move and do things the way they like. The Korle Bu that is standing there is not for anybody’s father.”

She assured me she will take action immediately.

She spoke in Twi saying, “Dakubo, I am telling you, it has fallen in water totally. You say that you are two young surgeons doing many of the difficult cases on the block I was lying in and those old men want to send you away! What happens when we come in sick? You wait and see the buttons I will press. Go home and go about your work. You will not hear anything about this case again. It is dead”.

And truly, I never heard of my transfer out of Korle Bu again till this day. That action also exposed and later ushered me into other roles in this hospital which for the good of the country I will continue to serve.

With this, if I were to mete out to people the treatment I had from them, I could have and still can mess up their lives but that is not me.

I will rather focus on the positive fallouts which helps to improve the health care system and develop activities to help in the developmental agenda of the country.

In 2009, the HOD, who vowed I will not teach in UGMS, exhausted his extended position as the head of surgery.

I was encouraged by many to put in my application which I did. Declining my application was not going to be acceptable, anymore. Well, wisdom reigned and I was processed for an interview and employed to teach in the medical school.

I am still happy about the peace that prevailed.

Prof Lawson had become the Provost of the College of Health Sciences and he was very interested in my interview so he declared his conflict of interest during the appointment and promotions meeting when I appeared before the panel.

He told the panel I had suffered what I did not deserve and he was there just to see things go well so that I can teach in the school. He also asked for a soft copy of my CV.

He said, looking at my CV he could see that I had a clear vision for colorectal cancer research and the establishment of colorectal surgical practice and he thinks that these are what the university should be encouraging.

He had a slot for somebody to go to the University of Michigan for a research fellowship. He told me that I could take that as a first step towards my journey in colorectal research and development of a colorectal unit at Korle Bu.

After the interview, I was awarded a research fellowship. I reported this to Prof Naaeder who was in disbelief.

He kept asking me to brief him on what transpired at the interview. I said my interview was brief. He said that there are laid down procedures for awarding scholarships in the university, but this was extraordinary.

"It doesn’t happen, what at all did you tell the panel?" he quizzed.

I received my appointment letter within one week after the interview and a month and half later, I went to the University of Michigan, US, as an astride employee.

All I can say is that God works in mysterious ways and He will always use the foolish things of this world to make His point.

This does not conclude or even begin the story of my life at Korle Bu, but these events shaped my journey in a way that I will never forget.

Many have asked me to put everything down in a book, trust me, I will.

But in all things, I give thanks to my maker.

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Prof. Jonathan CB Dakubo is an academic and astute surgeon with 31 years professional standing in Ghana.

He is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Ghana Medical School and a Consultant Surgeon at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

His area of research and work interest is Colo- Proctology. For the past 15 years he has focused his attention on reviewing, revising and introducing innovations into the knowledge, diagnosis and surgical treatments of diseases of the colon, rectum and anus, that are acceptable to patients and with excellent outcomes.

He is also the Founder and CEO of Mwin Tuba Hospital and Colo-Proctology Centre.