The child seen above is alive through the generosity of Mrs. Karl Storz and the Storz Corporate family. Karl Storz Company’s large donation of pediatric endoscopic instruments had just arrived when this three year old presented with a coin lodged in his esophagus. The child refused to swallow even breast milk and had a cough and fever with an aspiration pneumonia. With the newly arrived finely crafted telescopes and optical hard foreign body removal forceps, the coin was successfully removed from an esophagus that was edematous and inflamed.
The generosity of many companies such as Karl Storz, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Anspach, Surgitel, Smiths Medical, Covidien, Boston Medical Products, Dale, Westone Labs, Widex, Jedmed, Starkey, ArthroCare, Stryker, Grace Medical and KayPentax is heart-warming. When I am tired and discouraged, a request for needed medical supplies to save lives is granted and makes one realize how much good there is in the world. Businesses and corporations sometime receive bad press, but their contribution to this family is immeasurable. They have a living child and are eternally grateful.
Like many of our patients, this rural indigent family did not have Ghana National Health Insurance and were unable to pay for medical care. I am sure the Storz family is even more delighted that their instruments were used to save a child whose people are among the forgotten in the world.