Medical care in Ghana

Even though we saved the lives of several patients in the past few weeks, there were two difficult cases that did not turn out well.

A ten year-old boy from an area north of Tamale was asked by his friends to close his eyes and open his mouth for a surprise. When he complied, a nail was thrown into his mouth that he reflexively swallowed causing him to aspirate it into his lung. He began coughing daily and developed pneumonia resulting in a week of hospitalization. However, not until a year and a half later, was his first chest x-ray taken which showed the object in his lung. He was then referred to our hospital where I unsuccessfully tried to remove the nail that was now embedded in scar tissue. Another attempt will be made in about four days after the swelling subsides.

Another young boy, aged nine, who had developed an abscess in his neck, was initially taken for local treatment to the village herbalist who cut into the infected area. The child began bleeding profusely and after four days was brought to our hospital. He continued to hemorrhage and was transfused with seven units of blood. Unfortunately, our hospital is not equipped to perform arteriography to accurately locate the bleeding site or to embolize the vessel to stop the hemorrhaging. Because he was bleeding to death, we explored his neck and found the origin in the vertebral artery at the base of his skull. Tragically, we could not put an end to the bleeding and the child died.