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Renowned Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused Euracare Hospital in Lagos of robbing her of the peace to mourn her 21-month-old son, who died at the facility in January, saying she wakes every morning with her heart racing as she struggles to accept his death.
“I wake up every single morning with my heart racing. Did this really happen? My precious son, Nkanu Nnamdi. My KanKan, my diokpala,” Adichie wrote in a caption accompanying a lengthy letter addressed to the chairman of Euracare’s board of directors on Saturday.
“The ultimate and utter loneliness of grief is that only you can know the true depth of your despair. I long for, at least, peace to mourn, but Euracare Hospital has robbed me even of that,” she added.
The award-winning author, known for “Half of a Yellow Sun” and “We Should All Be Feminists,” lost her son Nkanu in January 2026 after he received care at Atlantis Hospital and underwent medical procedures at Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital in Lagos.
Adichie said she decided to make her letter public because “to keep silent about Euracare’s evil is to enable it.”
She said she erased two names from the letter but left two for clarity and credibility. Since the letter was sent in April, she added, Euracare has become “uglier.”
“I have decided to make this letter public because to keep silent about Euracare’s evil is to enable it. I do not want anyone mentioned to be personally targeted. I have erased two names and left two for clarity and credibility. Since the letter was sent in April, Euracare has become uglier,” she wrote.
“It was Euracare which first applied for an inquest in January, stating that our son’s death was unexpected and an inquest was in their interest because of ‘rumours of negligence.’ Yet they have stalled and muddied and obfuscated. If this is how Euracare manages a crisis, it is little wonder it mismanaged our precious son’s care.
“Most egregiously, Euracare is now asking a High Court to stop the inquest. An inquest is a public judicial inquiry designed to establish the circumstances surrounding a death. It is not a trial. It is not a claim for damages. It is simply a search for the truth. If Euracare cares about the truth, then why create delays and distractions and now, finally, try to stop an inquest?
“A person high up in the hospital ownership told my relative – “I admire and respect Chimamanda so much that I don’t want her to go to court because her name may be dragged in the mud and bad things may be said about her since court cases are about winning and anybody would do anything to win.”
“What a manipulative and implicitly threatening message to send to a parent whose child died in your hospital. But this threatener does not know how fiercely we love our child. They can drag all they wish in the mud, but our quest for justice will continue. I am deeply grateful to all of the people from across the world who have genuinely wished us well. May you find comfort in your own time of need. Please continue to pray for us. This weight is too heavy.”
In the letter, Adichie paid a heartbreaking tribute to her late son, describing how her family now lives with the constant reminder of his absence.
She said Nkanu was named after his grandfather, a celebrated obstetrician-gynaecologist, and had a precocious sense of humour and empathy. She also recounted how he once rubbed her knee after hearing her complain about pain, saying, “Mama, sorry,” and how he would always ask for a second toy to give to his brother.
Adichie wrote, “Our twin boys were our precious and perfect gifts. My husband and I were so grateful to be blessed with them. They brought us, and their older sister, so much happiness. Nkanu, the older twin, our ‘First Son,’ was named after his grandfather, the celebrated obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Nkanu Esege.
“Nkanu’s emotional intelligence was unusual for his age. One day last December, he heard me complaining to my cousin about my knee pain after a workout and he hurried over to me and began to lovingly rub my knee, saying, “Mama, sorry.” He was the bigger of the two, but the softie. If you gave him a toy, he immediately wanted another to give to his brother. He would randomly get on the sofa and stand up and give me a tight hug. If I said, “Kiss for Mama,” he would immediately lean forward and present his lovely lips. He was an absolute Daddy’s Boy and would let only his father put him to bed at night.
“He loved sitting on the floor to look at picture books with me; he loved roughhousing with his father; he loved having his extended family together – if we were all gathered in the living room and one person got up to leave, Nkanu would cry. He wanted to eat every adult’s food. We marveled at his climbing skills, how he scaled ottomans and tables and even tried to get on the kitchen counter.
“He charmed everyone. He had a sense of humour made even more delightful by its precociousness. His laughter lifted spirits. A relative, watching him, once said, ‘Kankan is just a jolly good fellow.”
“We have two highchairs in the dining room, two car seats in the car, two toddler beds in the bedroom. And now only one toddler.
To have Nkanu gone so cruelly, so unfairly, so carelessly, has brought an inexpressible pain. In truth, this loss is too much for us, too inconceivable. As each day passes, the darkness blackens even more. We have endured losses in the past but this is singular in its ability to permanently change the shape of the world.
“We have lost the present, and we have lost the future. We have been robbed of the blessing that raising Nkanu would have been. Our ten-year-old daughter has shut down. Our son is confused and asks often for his twin. The other day he pointed to a set of their matching pyjamas and said, “This is for Kankan. He is now forever bereft of his brother. Our relatives who adored Nkanu are all suffering. Losing Nkanu has shattered our lives and our hearts.
“But I should not be writing all these details to you. It is an indictment of Euracare that I feel compelled to write them as a reminder that a much-beloved CHILD, a precious human being, is gone. Losing a child is a parent’s worst nightmare. The least any parent who has suffered such a loss deserves is the peace and privacy to grieve. Euracare has deprived us of that. We have instead had to contend with actions from Euracare that have poisoned and continue to poison our mourning.”
In the same letter, Adichie alleged that the anesthesiologist, Dr Titus Ogundare, gave her son “too much propofol” and that he was not properly monitored, leading to respiratory and cardiac arrest.
She also disputed the death certificate, which listed meningitis as the cause of death, insisting it should be corrected to “improper sedation, hypoxic brain injury, cardiac arrest.”
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The Lagos State High Court, on May 26, granted Euracare leave to challenge the Coroner’s Court’s jurisdiction, ordering a stay of the inquest proceedings pending the determination of a judicial review application filed by the hospital. The Coroner’s Court subsequently adjourned the matter to October 8, 2026.
The Lagos State Attorney-General, Lawal Pedro (SAN), and the Chief Coroner of Lagos State have since filed a preliminary objection urging the High Court to dismiss Euracare’s application, describing it as incompetent, premature, and an abuse of court process.
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria subsequently suspended Dr Ogundare; the hospital’s Medical Director, Dr Tosin Majekodunmi; and the Chief Medical Officer of Atlantis Pediatric Hospital, Dr Atinuke Uwajeh, pending disciplinary proceedings.
Euracare had not responded to Adichie’s post or to requests for comment as of the time of this report.
