|
|
Ghana: 12 Kids Receive Free Cardiac Surgery
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
11 March 2008
Posted to the web 11 March 2008
Sebastian R. Freiku
Kumasi
A TEAM of cardiac surgeons from Boston's Children's Hospital, of Harvard University, in the United States of America (USA), has arrived in Kumasi to undertake the second phase of free cardiac surgery for children, under a Boston Hospital-Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) collaboration.
Led by Dr. Francis Fynn Thompson and Dr. Beverly Small, of the department of the Cardiac Surgery of Boston's Children's Hospital, the team, comprising medical personnel, including Dr. Ofori Amanfo, a cardio and intensive care specialist, and volunteers, would operate on between 10 and 12 patients, from 80 children with congenital heart diseases within 10 days.
The team was at KATH, in October last year, to perform the first-ever open-heart surgery at the hospital, during which eight children benefited from the exercise. It cost $65,000 to operate on each patient.
The surgeons used a cost-effective method, named Ventular Septal Defects (VSD), which technology would be transferred to the KATH staff.
Under the programme, the team would visit KATH, twice every year, to perform heart surgeries on screened patients, mostly children.
For the second time in six months, the team, on behalf of its sponsors, Child Variety Lifeline (International Variety Club), has donated medical equipment, including two echo machines, for the valuation of heart defects, at a cost of $500,000, eight new cardiac monitors and two ventilators, and a quantity of consumables.
Last October, the team donated $1 million worth of cardio, and intensive care equipment and consumables, raised from donations for free surgeries at KATH, and which has since helped to improve the equipment stock of the hospital, besides imparting skills and technology transfer to the local staff.
Dr. Beverly Small said the import of the programme was to impart knowledge to their Ghanaian counterparts, by training nurses in critical care and theatre nursing, as well as provide on line support to the centre, to be able to take up the challenge, and manage cardiac problems at the local level.
Dr. Fynn Thompson sees the gesture as a worthwhile investment, in both human and material resources.
He said the focus of the team, was to work towards the establishment of a Paediatric Heart Centre at KATH, for which reason a Ghana Paediatric Heart Fund was launched, last October, by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. E. A. Owusu-Ansah, as part of a global drive to solicit for resources, for the establishment of the proposed Centre and which would eventually culminate into a Regional Cardio Centre for the West African sub-region.
It is expected that the Centre, when established, would ease the work-load of the Korle-Bu Cardiothoracic Centre in Accra, and help improve access to cardiac surgeries in the country.
Otumfuo Dr. Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, donated GH¢10,000 to support the Fund.
Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Chief Executive Officer of KATH, has expressed appreciation to the medical team, from Boston, whose mission, he said, would help the hospital expand its range of specialist services to the public, and enhance its quest for excellence in healthcare delivery.
In another development, the team has presented assorted books to three educational institutions, including the Trede Roman Catholic Primary and JSS schools, Nightingale Model Nursery School, run by the Ghana Registered Nurses Association at KATH, and the Sisters of Charity at Mbrom, in Kumasi.
|
The team has given the assurance to supply a computer to each of the named schools on their next visit in September this year.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
