Rahinatu Amissah has brought legal action in the General Jurisdiction division of the High Court in Accra seeking orders from the Court directed at Synlab, a Medical Laboratory Facility with International presence for producing false test results that she was infected with the dreaded sexually transmitted disease of HIV.

In her writ brought for and on her behalf by the learned John Asaayure Akazee of the respected Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co., she tells her tragic story of the loss of employment and earnings owing to the knowledge of her employers of the false diagnosis and suicidal thoughts the pyschological breakdown from the news drove her to.

All others say negative

Disbelieving the falsity in her results from Synlab, the Plaintiff-hairdresser avers in her writ of summons filed on the the 29th day of April, 2025 that she conducted a series of tests at numerous facilities in Accra and Tamale all suggesting she had no HIV. The beehive hospital of top brass qualified medical professionals in Ghana, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital also turned a negative result for her.

Yet still, the Defendant-medical laboratory services provider, Synlab insisted on the results of her test despite negative results from others. At paragraph 10 of her Statement of Claim setting out her claims she said as follows:

"Plaintiff says that armed with these two confirmatory results from the Royal Good Shepherd Hospital and the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, she went back to confront the Defendant with those results and a blood sample was collected from her on the 4th of April, 2023 which test result again claimed that the Plaintiff was HIV positive. Plaintiff on this occasion paid One hundred and Eighty Ghana Cedis (Gh¢ 180.00)."

Job loss, stigma

Per the Plaintiff, her family sold their cows among others to fund her travel to Kuwait where she had secured employment as a hairdresser with rewarding income. The results of Synlab became available to immigration officers of Kuwait who insisted tests from the Defendant-lab was needed to make her residence in Kuwait permanent. Per the Plaintiff, the test amongst others were mandatory at the Defendant"s laboratory for her travel.

The positive HIV results from the Defendant became known to the authorities who made same knowledge available to the employers of the Plaintiff. Per the writ of the Plaintiff, a copy of which can be read in full below, her employers now shun her and disengaged her services. This according to the writ of the Plaintiff led her back to Ghana.

Stigma continues

Rahinatu Amissah returned back to Ghana to meet further stigma when the news of the false positive HIV results from Synlab had trickled down to Ghana even before the tyres of her plane from Kuwait to Ghana had hit the tarmac of Kotoka International Airport.

According to the well laid out story per the writ of Rahinatu, she was shunned by friends and family leading her to sucidal thoughts.

Baby in

The Plaintiff continues her story to the Honourable Court per her writ that she found solace in the counsel of a religious cleric who she ended up having a baby for. As mandatory of antenatal care for pregnant women, she underwent HIV tests to detect her status to avert mother-baby transfer of the disease.

Her hospital churned out a negative test result. She thus delivered her child who is also negative for HIV and according to her writ, never administered any drugs to prevent HIV transfer to her child.

Negligence

Given the events as unfolded after the false results from Synlab, the Plaintiff per her writ seeks to suggest to the Court that the Defendant-medical laboratory acted negligently leading to such a toll on her entire life.

Per her writ, she relies on the plea of res ipsa loquitur suggesting to the Court, the damage to her naturally flows from the wrong results given to her and authorities in Kuwait. The Plaintiff particularises the negligence of the Defendant, the losses to her occassioned by the negligence and injury emanating from the negligence of the Defendant.

See writ of the Plaintiff below: