Medical Aid For Northern Ghana, Inc.

Access to health care is not as accessible to the people in the Northern Region of Ghana because the greater number of physicians are located in the southern part of the country. For that reason, I have chosen to work in this geographical area and have recently established a tax exempt foundation called "Medical Aid For Northern Ghana, Inc." through which significant medical needs can be addressed.
Corporations may wish to donate specific medical equipment while individuals may choose to make a financial contribution. It has been advised that checks should be made payable to "Medical Aid For Northern Ghana, Inc." and mailed to my address in the US where a member of my family will acknowledge its receipt and deposit the funds directly into the foundation's account.
Providing medical care allows me to experience the deep appreciation felt by the recipients and I personally thank you in advance for your generosity.
James P. Murphy, MD
Otolaryngology Consultant
Tamale Teaching Hospital
Tamale, Northern Region
Ghana, West Africa

A working holiday

Kola Nut


Doctors Joel Dickens and Andy Norman


The Gambaga Escarpment


A Female Pet Baboon

Last weekend, I visited the Gambaga Escarpment at Nakpanduri and stayed at the well respected Nalerigu Baptist Hospital. At the hospital, the doctors presented a young man who had a kola nut wedged into his throat for eight days and for which they did not have the equipment to remove it. Examination of the patient revealed air in his neck indicating that the kola nut had perforated through the esophagus. His history revealed that because his girlfriend had left him, he sought the advice of a traditional medicine healer who advised him to swallow the biggest kola nut he could find. This, the young man was told, would result in bringing his girlfriend back. The patient was transferred to Tamale Teaching Hospital where the nut was removed endoscopically and a neck drain and nasogastric tube were inserted. He is doing well several days after surgery.
For the past three weeks, Dr. Andy Norman of Vanderbilt University has been in Ghana performing vesicovaginal fistula repair on several women who developed complications from giving birth. If a woman has prolonged labor, the baby’s head can constantly pound on the urinary bladder and this may cause a permanent, open tract between the vagina and urinary bladder. When this occurs, urine leaks continuously out of the patient’s vagina causing the woman to stink of urine and to be ostracized from her family and village. The complication is rare in the developed countries where obstetrical care is available during labor but here, there are far too many women who are not as fortunate.

Thanks for the medical donations which are necessary in caring for the patients

Post operative photo.

Preoperative photo.


The endoscopic equipment, so generously donated by Karl Storz Corporation, is ready for the next child presenting with an aspirated foreign body. Recent donations of drill equipment by Anspach, microscope light bulbs and drapes by Karl Zeiss and tracheostomy tubes by Smiths Medical are greatly appreciated and are so necessary in caring for patients.
With the help of a visiting maxillofacial surgeon from Kusmasi, a neck tumor (teratoma) which was causing airway obstruction was removed from a five pound, four-month old girl. Post-surgery, the child’s breathing improved remarkably.