Medical manufactureres have a big heart for African children

In the last seven days five lives have been saved and several traumatic facial lacerations which transected the tear duct system, lips, ears, nose and /or the eyelid have been repaired.  The patients saved were mostly children, including a three year old girl with a deep neck abscess which caused airway obstruction, a child who choked on a groundnut necessitating removal of four pieces from both bronchi, a two- year girl with a coin stuck in her esophagus for five days, a twenty year old student with a fish bone lodged in her esophagus and a thirty-five year old road traffic accident victim with upper airway obstruction from a fractured mandible and severe head trauma. The equipment necessary to save these children who aspirated or ingested foreign bodies were donated by the major medical manufacturers. Due to instruments breakage we are at a minimum of the Hopkin-rod telescopes and telescopic forceps which are used in removal. A repaired telescopic forceps, which the manufacturer kindly repaired free of charge, should arrive this week.
 

 

 

Scrub nurse, child who ingested a coin and child with deep neck infection and upper airway obstruction.

 

Poverty hinders medical treatment.

The poverty of our patients and the lack of the hospital’s ability to provide necessary drugs and supplies without the patients first paying for these things are big factors in providing treatment. Because the sick and their families cannot afford medical care, they delay in coming to the hospital. Due to presenting at such a late stage in their illness, half of those admitted die within twenty-four hours. In rural Africa, many pregnant women deliver at home, often with complications. Two-thirds of children die at home without ever coming to the hospital.

Recently, one elderly woman developed a dental infection, which spread to her neck and eventually drained out from her neck. Fortunately, she did not die while she treated herself for six months at home and finally came in when she could not swallow any food.

Another patient with a fractured mandible, whom we needed to refer to another hospital, could not pay for the eight-dollar bus ticket until we gave him money for transportation.

Skin grafts were done on a woman who could not afford a plastic surgeon and would otherwise have gone home with an exposed wound.
Our ear, nose and throat department submitted a paper on malaria being a cause of deafness in northern Ghana.

Burn Children in Ghana, Africa

My heart broke this week when two burned children died from an accidental gun powder explosion. An adult had the gunpowder while eight boys watched and after it exploded they all came with extensive burns. One twelve year-old asked me for a drink of water in the morning and when I finished surgery at 5 PM and checked on him, his bed was empty and I was told he had died at 3 PM. A three year-old died when an endotracheal tube could not be passed into his lungs through his burned, edematous, obstructing larynx. It is terrible for children to die from such a preventable accident and from lack of a burn unit with proper personnel and equipment. The adult and another eleven year-old are in serious condition.
 

 

These poor burned children do not even cry.

 

This week the lives were saved of a five year-old with a coin lodged in his esophagus, two septic patients with deep neck abscesses from tooth infections, and a septic patient who removed the bone caught in his mouth with a non-sterile knife. On Friday, a large, painful cystic forehead lesion was drained through the nose.

Africa's poverty and health

A three year old girl may die due to poverty, fear and ignorance. Four months ago, this girl presented with airway obstruction. A tumor, obstructing her breathing, was partially removed, allowing her to breath.  We have a part time pathologist and two months later her tumor was reported as a lymphoma, which can be cured ninety percent of the time with the proper chemotherapy. This week, the child, using a different name to avoid the previous hospital bill, presented to the hospital again with airway obstruction.  The lymphoma had increased in size and a tracheostomy was required to maintain her breathing. The girl needs to go to the larger city of Kumasi for chemotherapy. This rural family is afraid of a big city where their language will not be understood and they do not have money for food, x-rays or chemotherapy drugs. Our dept-ridden hospital does not have funds to donate and Ghana’s National Health Insurance does not pay for special x-rays and some chemotherapy drugs.  Several hospital staff are donating, but it is uncertain if the father can overcome his fear. He states: If God wishes her to die, she will die; if He wishes her to live, she will live. Money donated by a New Jersey parish was given to the family for expenses.