“IF NOT FOR SIDE CHICKS, I WOULDN’T BE HERE” – Former KATH CEO Prof. Addai-Mensah Shares Emotional Life Story
Former CEO of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Professor Otchere Addai-Mensah, has opened up in an emotional and candid interview, recounting the challenges of his upbringing and how it shaped the man he is today. Speaking with journalist Bright Kankam Boadu, the medical professor shared a deeply personal narrative that highlighted resilience, pain, and triumph—while delivering a surprising statement on the role of side chicks.
“On a lighter note, I don’t joke with side chicks at all,” he said with a chuckle. “If there were no side chicks, I wouldn’t have been in this world.”
Professor Addai-Mensah revealed that he was born to a young polytechnic student who was a side partner to a married man, his father. At just 21, his mother was pregnant with him and had reportedly undergone four previous abortions.
“My father wanted me aborted too and gave my mother GH¢2.00 to terminate the pregnancy,” he disclosed. “I don’t blame him entirely, though, because I later found out his wife was also pregnant at the time.”
Despite the odds, his mother defied the directive and went ahead with the pregnancy. Her strength and determination became the foundation of his success story. “She sold her clothes and jewelry to survive,” he said. “She later worked with SSNIT for 38 years, and that stability helped me through school.”
Recalling painful childhood experiences, Prof. Addai-Mensah described being denied recognition by his father, even in public. “He once appeared on TV and was asked to dedicate a song to his children. He mentioned all their names—except mine. I was sitting among friends watching. That moment broke me.”
Another moment of rejection came during his national service posting. While seeking to change his assignment from Wa to Prempeh College, he ran into his father, who was at the Secretariat helping others but not him. “He just asked how I was and left. I stood there till 5 p.m. before a kind man helped me. I recently met that man in Abetifi and gave him all the money I had on me.”
Now an Associate Professor of Haematology, Immunology, and Global Health at KNUST’s Department of Medical Diagnostics, Addai-Mensah says his painful past drove him to excel. “I prayed like my life depended on it and studied like my life depended on it. I wanted to prove that I could make it—and that if I failed, it wouldn’t be because of my circumstances.”
Eventually, he shared, his father came back to apologize—with a group of respected figures by his side—but the scars of the past remained. “They came after I had finished medical school. I asked them, ‘Why now?’”
Source:NKONKONSA.comq
