Hospital’s Negligence Led To Loss Of My Son –Chimamanda Adichie

Famous Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Adichie has said that she lost her son due to the hospital’s negligence.

Adichie laid the charge on a social media holding that the 21-month-old son, Nkanu Nnamdi would have been alive had the hospital where he was being attended to been professional enough.

Family, friends and associates of the author had been sending condolences since the news of the passage of the boy broke, Wednesday, January 7, 2026, following a brief illness, and the bereaved mother says she wonders if she would ever survive the loss.

“We were in Lagos for Christmas. Nkanu had what we first thought was just a cold, but soon turned into a very serious infection, and he was admitted to Atlantis Hospital”, Adichie narrated in the post, adding:

“He was to travel to the US the next day, January 7th, accompanied by travelling doctors. A team at Johns Hopkins was waiting to receive him in Baltimore. The Hopkins team had asked for a lumbar puncture test and an MRI,” she said.

“The Nigerian team had also decided to put in a ‘central line’ (used to administer IV medications) in preparation for Nkanu’s flight. The morning of the 6th, we left Atlantis Hospital for Euracare, Nkanu carried in his father’s arms.

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“We were told he would need to be sedated to prevent him from moving during the MRI and the ‘central line’ procedure. I was waiting just outside the theatre. I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theatre and immediately knew something had happened,” she stated.

“A short time later, Dr M came out and told me Nkanu had been given too much propofol by the anesthesiologist, had become unresponsive and was quickly resuscitated”.

“But suddenly, Nkanu was on a ventilator; he was intubated and placed in the ICU.

“The next thing I heard was that he had seizures. Cardiac arrest. All these had never happened before. Some hours later, Nkanu was gone”

Hinting on the hospital’s negligence, she stated: “It turns out that Nkanu was never monitored after being given too much propofol. The anesthesiologist had just casually carried Nkanu on his shoulder to the theatre, so nobody knows when exactly Nkanu became unresponsive.

“How can you sedate a sick child and neglect to monitor him? Later, after the ‘central line’ procedure, the anesthesiologist casually switched off Nkanu’s oxygen and again decided to carry him on his shoulder to the ICU!

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“The anesthesiologist was CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child. No proper protocol was followed.”

“And suddenly, our beautiful little boy was gone forever. It is like living your worst nightmare. I will never survive the loss of my child,” she said.

“We have now heard about two previous cases of this same anesthesiologist overdosing children. Why did Euracare allow him to keep working?

“This must never happen to another child”, Chimamanda Adichie stated.