An Emergency Care Unit doctor at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Dr. Matilda Amissah, has recounted the tragic death of her 29-year-old brother, Charles Amissah, describing the experience as “heartbreaking” and pointing to serious gaps in Ghana’s emergency healthcare system.

Speaking during a JoyNews national dialogue on Ghana’s emergency care crisis on Thursday, Dr. Amissah detailed the family’s desperate search after her brother went missing.

Charles Amissah reportedly suffered severe injuries in a hit-and-run accident on February 6, 2026, at the Circle Overpass. However, his family remained unaware of the incident for days, fearing he may have been kidnapped after his phone calls were picked but not answered.

“Someone was picking up his calls but not responding to us, so we thought it could be a kidnapping. We went from hospital to hospital, but no one had seen him. No facility reported any accident victim matching his description,” she said.

According to her, it later emerged that he had been picked up by a National Ambulance Service team and transported for medical care — efforts that, according to Dr. Amissah, were unsuccessful.

“He was first taken to the Police Hospital, but they said there was no bed. Even when the ambulance team tried to get them to use a trolley, they refused. They were then referred to Ridge Hospital, but the same thing happened. They were told to go back to the Police Hospital,” she added.

Dr. Amissah suggested that the back-and-forth between facilities caused critical delays in administering life-saving treatment.

She stated that the family only discovered the truth days later when police contacted them to identify a motorbike linked to an accident.

She added that their search ended at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital mortuary, where Charles had initially been recorded as an unidentified body.

“It was heartbreaking. I couldn’t go through the bodies myself. They had to bring him out on a trolley,” she recounted. “When I saw him, I knew it was my brother. It was devastating.”

She described visible injuries, including a deep wound to his shoulder and friction burns, indicating the severity of the accident.

Dr. Amissah used the platform to call for urgent reforms in Ghana’s emergency care system.

“No patient in a critical condition should be turned away because there is no bed space. We need a system that responds to emergencies with urgency and humanity,” she stressed.