59-year-old Ghanaian swallows 77 cocaine pellets

A 59-year-old man who was referred to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital with severe abdominal pains on Tuesday night was found to have swallowed 77 pellets of a substance suspected to be cocaine.

The man, whose identity has been given as Kwaku Sarfo, nearly lost his life because he refused to inform health officials that some pellets of the drug he had swallowed could have been the cause of his pains.

Sarfo is said to have reported at the Erime Care Clinic, near the Kaneshie First Light, with abdominal pains about 11 a.m. on Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

It took an emergency surgery at Korle-Bu on Tuesday night for doctors to unravel the real cause of the pains.

He had swallowed 77 pellets of what is suspected to be cocaine, one of which leaked and could have been the cause of his agony.

As of the time of filing this report, doctors at the hospital said Sarfo was in a stable condition.

He is currently under 24-hour guard, while the suspected pellets of cocaine have been forwarded to the Police Narcotics Unit at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

According to the Public Relations Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Mr Mustapha Salifu, the patient was referred to the hospital about 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday by health officials of the Erime Care Clinic, where he had earlier in the day reported sick.

Mr Salifu explained that since Sarfo’s abdominal pains were becoming severe, he was rushed to the theatre where an emergency surgery was performed on him.

He said it was as a result of the surgery that the doctors found the 77 pellets in Sarfo’s stomach, one of which was leaking.

He said the Chief Executive Officer of Korle-Bu, Professor Nii Otu Nartey, was notified, and he in turn reported the case to the police.

Mr Salifu said the police were currently guarding Sarfo.

Source: Daily Graphic