Circumstances that have led to the death of 21-year-old Isaiah Benedicto Williams at St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Congo Town, Monrovia, are yet to be unrivaled, but the family suspects overdose and wrongful administration of medication here, demanding an investigation.
By: Emmanuel Wise Jipoh
Monrovia, Liberia, January 9, 2025 – Grieving family members of the late Isaiah Benedicto Williams are blaming the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Congo Town, Monrovia, for his death.
21-year-old Williams, a 2022 graduate of St. Edward Catholic School here, reportedly died on Friday, January 3, 2025, at 12:46 pm in the operation theater of the Catholic Hospital, but the family alleges negligence by the hospital, which led to the death of their son, accusing the institution of administering overdose injection.
An investigation by the NEW DAWN indicates that the late Williams, who reportedly developed bilateral inguinal hernia or hydro-sea condition before he was admitted at St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital, allegedly died after being overdosed with the wrong medication, leaving him shivering, itching his private parts, and ejaculating several times before succumbing to death.
“Academic Gladiator,” as he was affectionately called, the 21-year-old promising student, was said to be the only child of his mother.
The grieving mother of the deceased, Veronica Tayeah, is being consoled
He was a candidate of the University of Lay Adventists of Kigali, Rwanda, having completed the admission process before his sudden death.
Family sources say he was never sick before his admittance at the hospital, suspecting that he might have died of the wrong injection administered to him.
In a touching story, the family says the late Williams allegedly overdosed on the wrong medication without even going through surgery for which he was admitted at the hospital.
“Catholic hospital killed my son, my only son; they killed my only flourishing fruit, a child who had begun making me proud, and had graduated from the St. Edward Catholic School with seven honors”, Veronica Tayeah, a weeping mother, narrates.
“They killed my son, my only child. I don’t know what kind of injection they gave him, but when I asked Doctor Thaddle, he said they did not do the operation. His skin was not cut. There was no mark of razor blade to say he bled or they performed a surgery that caused his death; nothing of such was done on him. But they killed my son”, she continues in tears.
According to Madam Tayeah, who is a volunteer guidance counselor of the Ministry of Education (MOE) assigned in Clay, Bomi County, she was allegedly asked by the hospital to sign a possibility casualty form, which didn’t provide death option, but potential wounds, major injury, intestine problem, prior to her son’s admission in the operation theater of the Catholic Hospital.
“My son wasn’t sick and had no symptoms of fever, but was only admitted due to swollen of his private part and back pain, so I didn’t want him to travel this week to Rwanda with any complaint.
So we decided to do medical check to have him properly healthy before departure. We first went to the hospital on 26 of December 2024; they told us to come back on the 2nd of January 2025, at which time he was admitted with no complaint. All we were told was that he was developing ‘hydrosea,’ and he would go for a short and successful surgery without any complications.”
According to the family, their son never had any history of health complications that might have prevented him from taking any other medication that would have caused his death.
“My Son has no health complications in his life. This boy was born March 31, 2003, and I know his health status; he was never sick, and I was only prevented from traveling with this developing hydrosea, and this has caused me pain.
Dr. Thaddle said there was an accident. Which accident, when they did not perform surgery on my son? They killed my son”, she cries further.
For his part, Mohammed Fofana, uncle of the deceased, says the St. Joseph’s Catholic hospital has allegedly failed to release the medical chart of the late Williams to know what might have resulted in his death.
Fofana stresses that the family is demanding accountability for their son’s death, which they are blaming on wrongful medication, disclosing they are planning to sue Dr. Thaddle.
He details that a request has been forwarded to the Liberia Medical and Dental Council (LMDC) through its Medical and Research Director, Mr. Joseph Coleman, to interrogate what led to the late Benedicto’s death and to ensure justice is served.
At the same time, Fofana reveals that dozens of students and friends of the late Williams’ are planning protests demanding justice while pleading with the LMDC to swiftly investigate the incident before they embark on a course of action that he says wouldn’t be stopped.
This is the second time in less than a year that a family has accused the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital of alleged negligence, resulting in death.
In April 2024, the Juwule Family, through its head, Mrs. Eugenia Titae Wisseh, a resident of Chicago, USA, alleged that the death certificate issued by the hospital was forged, which proved wrongful medication administered to their father led to his death.
The late Paul Juwule, 84, might have died as a result of suspected prostate cancer, kidney failure, and Armenia, as this paper observed from the doctor’s report. Still, Mrs. Wisseh had argued that her father died as a result of the wrong medication administered to him by the hospital.
Madam Wisseh, who is a professional health practitioner working in the United States, argued that standard protocol had required that her father be placed under immediate Oxygen to provide fluid to his Respiratory System, which the hospital did not do but administered the wrong injection, which caused his death.
Meanwhile, remains of the late Isaiah Benedicto Williams have been deposited at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital mortuary.
A previous death certificate seen by this paper of the late Paul Juwule implicated Dr. Thaddle in the wrongful administration of medication, and this latest incident is the second in which he has been caught in the web of wrongful medication, allegedly leading to death.
Effort by the NEW DAWN in contacting Mr. Peter Dawoh, said to be administration of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital did not materialize up to press time, as this paper gathered Mr. Dawoh was relieved of his post by a foreign national, whose name was not disclosed. Editing by Jonathan Browne
