Award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused a Lagos hospital of medical negligence following the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu Nnamdi, who died on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, hours after undergoing what she described as routine medical procedures.
In a detailed statement that has since circulated widely, Adichie alleged that her son was administered an excessive dose of propofol by an anesthesiologist at Euracare Hospital and was not properly monitored afterward, leading to a cascade of complications including loss of responsiveness, seizures, and ultimately cardiac arrest.
“My son would be alive today if not for an incident at Euracare Hospital on January 6th,” Adichie stated in the message, which was originally sent privately to family members and close friends but has since been confirmed as authentic by her media team.
ARISE News reported on Saturday that it reached out to Adichie’s representatives, who confirmed she authored the statement detailing the circumstances surrounding her son’s death.
The tragedy has sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s literary and intellectual community, as well as the broader public, sparking urgent questions about patient safety, anesthetic protocols, and accountability in the country’s private healthcare sector.
According to Adichie, her family had been in Lagos for the Christmas holiday when her son developed what initially appeared to be a cold. The illness quickly escalated into what she described as “a very serious infection,” prompting the family to admit the child to Atlantis Hospital.
“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,” she said.
Adichie explained that plans had been made for her son to travel to the United States on January 7, accompanied by travelling doctors, for further medical evaluation and treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. She said a team at Johns Hopkins had been waiting to receive the child and had requested that certain tests, including a lumbar puncture and an MRI scan, be conducted before his departure.
Atlantis Hospital, according to the author, referred the family to Euracare Hospital, “which was said to be the best place to have the procedures done.” In addition to the diagnostic tests, the medical team in Nigeria had also decided to insert a central line—a catheter used to administer intravenous medications—in preparation for the child’s international flight.
“The morning of the 6th, we left Atlantis Hospital for Euracare, Nkanu carried in his father’s arms,” Adichie recounted.
Adichie said she was informed that her son would need to be sedated to prevent him from moving during the MRI scan and the central line insertion procedure. She waited just outside the theatre while the procedures were being carried out.
“I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theatre and immediately knew something had happened,” she stated.
According to the author, she was later told by a doctor identified only as Dr M that her son had been given too much propofol by the anesthesiologist, had become unresponsive, and required urgent resuscitation.
“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,” she said.
Propofol is a widely used sedative and anesthetic agent known for its rapid onset and short duration of action. However, it requires careful dosing and continuous monitoring, particularly in pediatric patients, as overdoses can lead to respiratory depression, cardiovascular collapse, and death.
Adichie said her son was subsequently placed on a ventilator, intubated, and admitted to the intensive care unit. She described a rapid deterioration in his condition, including the onset of seizures and cardiac arrest—complications she said had never occurred before.
“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,” she said.
Adichie went further to allege that her son was not monitored after being administered the sedative, describing the anesthesiologist’s conduct as “criminally negligent.”
“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,” she stated.
She questioned how a sick child could be sedated without proper monitoring, adding that the anesthesiologist also “casually switched off Nkanu’s oxygen” after the central line procedure and again carried him on his shoulder to the ICU.
“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! The anesthesiologist was CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child. No proper protocol was followed,” she said.
Adichie emphasized that her family had brought in “a child who was unwell but stable and scheduled to travel the next day” for what she described as “basic procedures,” only to lose him unexpectedly.
“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.
In a particularly troubling aspect of her account, Adichie alleged that the family later learned of previous incidents involving the same anesthesiologist at Euracare Hospital.
“We have now heard about two previous cases of this same anesthesiologist overdosing children. Why did Euracare allow him to keep working?” she asked, adding, “This must never happen to another child.”
The allegations, if substantiated, raise serious questions about institutional oversight, quality assurance, and the management of adverse events within private healthcare facilities in Nigeria. They also point to potential gaps in regulatory enforcement and professional accountability in the medical sector.
A correspondent who reached out to Euracare Hospital for comment received a brief response from a spokesperson who declined to provide details.
“Whatever information you need, you get it between us and Chimamanda. Thank you,” the spokesperson said.
