The Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) has supported the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) to establish a Laparoscopic Surgical Training Center at its main theatre.
The US$234,000 facility, fully sponsored by KOFIH, would serve as the hub for training Laparoscopic Surgeons in the country, and provide laparoscopic services for the middle sector and beyond the country.
Laparoscopic Surgery is the use of cameras and instruments through small holes into the body of a patient and operating or doing the same thing that surgeons would have cut open to do, but leaving the patient with very little trauma.
At a brief ceremony to officially hand over the equipment to KATH last Friday, the Chief Executive Officer of (CEO) KATH, Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso, explained that the project was the second to be established by KOFIH in the country, and that he was excited because it was a dream come true.
He said the project would be a game-changer in Laparoscopic and Gynaecology by training surgeons, doctors, and nurses in the middle hub of the country, and even Ghana’s neighbouring countries.
Dr. Owusu-Danso was full of praise for the Lead Surgeon at the Center, Dr. Dominic Darkwah, who benefited from a training programme in South Korea and whose project proposals won an international award, which also led to KOFIH opting to help establish the center at KATH.
The CEO said some 15 other doctors, surgeons, and nurses had undergone training at the Center and there were others currently undergoing same in South Korea, and would soon return to augment their colleagues to man the center.
The Country Director of KOFIH, Mr. Jinho Kang, asked for proper maintenance of the equipments, and emphasised that the Foundation would continue to support KATH and Ghana in this area of surgery.
Dr. Dominic Darkwah, Consultant General Surgeon at the Center, told The Chronicle in an interview that the occasion marked a new beginning in surgery at KATH, and entreated the people of Kumasi and beyond to come and experience the laparoscopic kind of operation, which gives a lesser cut and practically a scar-less operation, a low painful experience after surgery, and faster recovery as compared to traditional surgery.
The rate of infection and blood loss is also very minimal.
From Thomas Agbenyegah Adzey
