‘Go and Sin No More’

-HOR Warns Authorities of JFK Over Appearance of Their Colleague’s Remains On Social Media

By Mark N. Mengonfia: m.mengonfia@newrepublicliberia.com

The House of Representatives has warned authorities of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Hospital [JFK] to go and conduct themselves properly not to have a repeat of what happened that resulted into the appearance of the remains of their colleague, the late Rep. Jay Nagbe Sloh on the social media (Facebook).

Appearing before that august body to respond to issues of how Rep. Sloh remains got on the social media, the Chief Administrator of the institution, Dr. Jerry Brown started his statement with an apology; indicating it was a mistake on the part of the institution.

Dr. Brown said, “I have learnt so much today from you. We hardly appreciate your comments and we will hardly welcome you calling us to book at any time and this is how we will learn.”

“We must admit that what has happened to the display of such honorable individual photos on social media, as I said from the beginning when we started, we greatly regret that, we were disturbed when we saw that photo ourselves,” Dr. Brown said.

According to him, the appearance of the photos on social media was a total breach of their policy and they will employ the right framework to ensure that it does not happen again.

He indicated that since he took over in 2018, this is the first time for his administration to face what happened.

“It has never happened at JFK since I took over,” Dr. Brown indicated. He praised members of that august body for bringing the situation to their attention; indicating; “it would have gone down without being noticed if you have not brought it to our attention.”

On Tuesday, June 30, 2020, a member of the House of Representatives who represented Sinoe County District two, Nagbe Sloh died at the JFK Memorial Hospital and minutes after his death, his sick images suffered on social media; something which aggravated members of the 54^th Legislature; thus requesting that the JFK administration make a representation before them to explain why they should not be held liable for such action which is against speaks to confidentiality of patient privacy.

Majority members of that body who spoke on the issues highlighted superior respondent theory and that the JFK takes responsibility of what happened at the government institution.

They instructed the authority to do due diligence by putting security into place that such thing will not happen to a Liberian and not just a lawmaker.

Prior to their appearance yesterday, the management of the JFK issued a disclaimer indicating that their attention has been drawn to the demeaning and unauthorized photographing of a patient who was admitted at the hospital.

The JFK authority said the late Rep. Sloh was admitted in a private room that was accessible by relatives, friends and office staffers.

In the disclaimer, authorities of the hospital said they believe that the photo circulating on social media could have only been taken by relatives and friends of the patient during his admission at the hospital.

The JFK management strongly “condemned the inhumane and horrible act and calls on individuals involved in the unauthorized recording, photographing and filming of patients within the premises of the medical center to desist as the center takes keen interest in the protection and promotion of patients’ privacy and has since instituted a Patient Privacy Policy (PPP) which protects the privacy of every patient.

During their appearance, Nimba County District five Representative, Samuel G. Kogar said the JFK authorities should forget about justifying who did what, but stick to their apology and said act should not be repeated.