The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi has a vision of being acknowledged as one medical centre of excellence with international repute in the West African sub-region.
The KATH hopes to achieve this by drawing all available resources, both human and material, from within and abroad to offer quality healthcare to patients.
Over the past years, authorities of the hospital have not relented in their efforts to reduce the trauma of patients suffering from various cardiovascular diseases through the provision of free surgical operations.
Those with tumours developed at various parts of their bodies, especially, their heads, face and neck, stigmatising them and making it impossible for them to undertake productive activities are benefiting from the KATH initiative.
The programme started about four years ago when heart specialists from the Children Hospital, Boston, Harvard University in the United States of America, arrived at the KATH and performed free open heart surgery for 11 children suffering from acute heart problems.
The following year, the specialists, who were determined to establish a paediatric centre in Kumasi came to the KATH for a similar open-heart surgery which benefited 18 children suffering from various heart problems.
In 2009, the initiative saw the heart specialists performing free open-heart surgery for 14 children , and early this year, the heart specialists from Harvard University extended their gesture to 15 children.
All the beneficiary children, who had abandoned their education prior to the surgery due to ill-health, have now resumed their academic work, and are more determined to develop their potential to enable them to support sustainable national development in future.
A 13-year-old girl who was recuperating at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital when journalists visited the unit, was full of smiles.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic she said before the surgery, she always felt very tired anytime she attempted walking, and pointed out that with the successful operation, she was looking forward to attending school.
“I attend school at Kings and Queen International in Kumasi and I hope to start school very soon” Eunice Ezerke told the Daily Graphic.
During the visit, the medical officers were busily operating on a 17-year-old girl who was also suffering from acute heart disease.
Apart from the heart specialists from Harvard University, Cardiostart International, also from the United States of America (USA) , is also collaborating with the KATH authorities to perform free open- heart surgery for adults suffering from heart diseases.
A team of 25 Cardio specialists from Cardiostart International successfully performed open-heart surgery for 11 patients suffering from acute cardiovascular diseases at the newly established Accident and Emergency Centre theatre at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi..
The team, made up of medical officers and an anaesthetist, among others, performed the operation in collaboration with their counterparts at the KATH as part of the programme to build the capacity of local medical officers.
The team also donated medical equipment and supplies estimated at $430,000.00 to the KATH to enhance quality health care at the hospital.
Late last year, a team of maxillofacial surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses from Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Camp (RPSC) in Rotenburg, Germany, performed surgery to remove tumours and corrected facial deformities for 54 patients in Kumasi and Tamale.
Thirty-two of the surgical operations, which lasted for a week, were performed at the Tamale Regional Hospital to prevent people suffering from such defects travelling to Kumasi to be operated upon.
Twenty–two of the operations were however performed at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi .
The removal of the tumours and correction of the facial deformities brought relief to the patients who had been stigmatised over the years by residents in their respective communities.
The surgeries, which were performed free of charge, was through the initiative of a German- based Ghanaian anaesthetist specialist, Dr Jacob Fofie Siaw, who was part of the team.
Other members of the team were Dr Christian Schippers, a maxillofacial surgeon, who was the leader of the team, Dr Alexander Rudolf, a maxillofacial surgeon, Dr Michael Paland, an anaesthetist, Dr Casten Schrieber, also an anaesthetist, Ms Baebel Ulbricht, a nurse, Ms Yohanna Schippers, a student, and Ms Andrea Martin, a nurse anaesthetist.
Commenting on their gesture during an interview with the Daily Graphic, 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 .
He granted the interview when they were at the last stage of their surgical operation performed on a 34-year-old woman with a huge head tumour at the KATH.
He said the need to visit Ghana as part of their effort to correct facial defects became necessary “because it will not only encourage others with similar skills to visit home regularly to provide such services to the less privileged, but will also enable the beneficiary patients lead a more fulfilled life.”
Explaining the conditions of the patients prior to the surgical operations, Dr Fofie Siaw noted “Many of the beneficiaries had a lot of swellings in their faces, with others having problems at their jaws since childhood, making it impossible for them to open their mouth properly.
“One of them had not been able to open her jaw for the past 25 years because both the upper and lower bones at her jaws were completely fused together, but now, she can do everything after the surgery” he said.
He said each of the patients would have paid between GH¢400.00 and GH¢1,500.00, depending on the their conditions, explaining that some of the tumours were so big that it took them over six hours to operate on 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.
He said the RPSC was also collarborating with the KATH authorities to build the capacity of their doctors to enable them to perform similar services for patients in future.
He expressed concern about the attitude of patients in refusing to seek early medical care when they observed changes in their bodies, stressing ,“ early medical treatment could reduce their predicament because even if their problems could not be addressed immediately, there could be some documentation about their records, so that in future , they would be given emergency treatment as we are doing now”.
He said they were not able to provide surgical operations for all patients “ but we will by all means return next year and priority would be given to those who are on our waiting list as soon as we return”.
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