A Team of surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses from Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Camp (RPSC) in Rotenburg, Germany, has operated on 54 patients to remove their tumours and correct facial deformities of others.
Thirty-two of the surgical operations which lasted for a week were performed at the Tamale Regional Hospital, while 22 operations were also performed at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
The surgeries, which were performed free of charge, were through the initiatives of a German-based Ghanaian anaesthetists, Dr Jacob Fofie Siaw, who was part of the team.
Other members of the team were Dr Christian Schippers, a surgeon, who was the leader of the team, Dr Alexander Rudolf, another surgeon, Dr Michael Paland, and anaesthetist, Dr Casten Schrieber, also an anaesthetist, Ms Baebel Ulbricht, a nurse, Ms Yohanna Schippers, a student and Ms Andrea Martin, a nurse anaesthetist.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview after operating on a-34-year-old woman with a tumour at the KATH, Dr Fofie Siaw said the team had been visiting developing countries to perform special services for children and adults who had facial defects and head tumours.
Dr Fofie Siaw said, "Many of the beneficiaries had lot of swellings on their faces, with others having problems with their jaws, making it impossible for them to open their mouth properly”.
He said “one of the patients had not been able to open her jaws for the past 25 year, because both the upper and the lower bones of the jaws were completely fused together, but now, she can do everything after the surgery".
He said each of the patients would have paid between GH¢400 and GH¢1,500, depending on the their conditions, explaining that some of the tumours were so big that it took them over six hours to remove them.
He said apart from the free surgical operation, they also provided the patients with drugs and offered some medical supplies to the KATH and Tamale hospitals.
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