Baker Hughes (BH) is allegedly reneging on its pledge to ensure that their employee Andrew Boateng, the young Ghanaian engineer who was involved in a terrible accident whilst on duty is given comprehensive medical attention.
The US-based oil and gas services company operating in many African countries including Ghana is being accused by the family of the victim of giving poor medical care to the injured engineer in spite of an undertaking reached by the company in the presence of the Chief Labour Officer in Accra almost a year ago.
The helpless Andrew Boateng, a Baker Hughes Ghana engineer was doing rotational work in Congo and Gabon in April 2014 when the vehicle they were travelling in was involved in a terrible accident in Gabon and had to be airlifted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, in coma.
Later, when he regained consciousness he reportedly spent a couple of weeks at the hospital and was first moved to a nursing home and finally to another home for the aged called Serenity Home, also in Johannesburg, when the company stopped catering for his needs.
However, when human rights activists in both Ghana and South Africa led by the ‘Save Andrew Boateng Campaign’ got involved in the case, the company held a news conference in November last year where their officials including Tony Nwosu, Country Manager for Baker Hughes and Poju Adedeji, Legal and Compliance Director and Government Relations for Africa assured the public of their preparedness to follow the expert’s advice and get the victim all the care he needed.
Baker Hughes again pledged to ensure the victim was given proper care and even affirmed the pledge at a tripartite meeting between the company, the family of the victim as well as the Labour Department in the presence of the Chief Labour Officer in Accra on Monday, 29th February, 2016.
After initial disagreements between Baker Hughes and the family over the type of medical care for the victim, the company agreed that sending Andrew Boateng outside South Africa would help and the family selected a medical facility in America for the recovery process.
Even though Baker Hughes wanted the cost for the medical assessment to be shared by them and the parties, the Chief Labour Officer impressed on the company to continue their funding.
The family believed that a year’s treatment in the United States at a hospital in Miami was going to improve Andrew Boateng’s health status but when the request was forwarded to Baker Hughes on the orders of the Labour Department, the company has refused to comply and Andrew Boateng is still stuck in South Africa without a proper care.
Andrew Boateng had been at Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg for about 6 months and was moved from there to Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital in Johannesburg on 5th June 2016 on the advice of Dr Ranchod, a Neurologist at Sunninghill because he was said to be contracting infections at Sunninghill and there were no facilities for rehabilitation.
He was said to have improved at Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital but the ‘Save Andrew Boateng Campaign’ is blaming the Chief Labour Officer for allegedly allowing Baker Hughes to flout the laws.
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