Following the launch of the Congenital Heart Disease treatment programme by Qatar Charity at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), a team of medical Professionals have come together to treat 30 patients, mostly children.
The process commenced on Monday 7th August and ended on Friday 11th August, 2023.
The operation, which was the first ever to be hosted in Ghana by the Centre, was considered to be highly successful at the end of the one week period, as all 30 patients that were selected were treated and discharged from the centre.
Parents showed a lot of joy in their faces and thanked both partners for the treatment for the children.
The operational plan was the catheterization method that was applied allowing minimal invasion as against the traditional open heart surgery that takes much time to finish an operation and more time to recover.
According to the nine Medical Doctors, one local and eight foreign delegations, the process entailed an invasive paediatric cardiac catheterization, making a small incision on the skin and passing a catheter through a vessel in the arm or thigh to fix the congenital heart defects.
“It is a low-risk procedure with post-op recovery of less than 48 hours. The technology reduces both time and cost and make patient recover in two day maximum period making it possible for all the 30 patients to be treated and discharged within the scheduled time frame”.
Reacting to the success at the closing ceremony, the Country Director of Qatar Charity, Mr. Hasan Owda, gave thanks and praises to God for the successful ending of the Programme as planned, and reiterated his commitment and that of the International Director of Programmes at the Qatar Charity headquarters in Qatar, to continue the Ghana-Qatar collaboration to save more lives in Ghana and to undertake other programmes in other areas like livelihood empowerment.
Professor of Paediatric Cardiology in Ghana, Professor Nana-Akyaa Yao, who took centre stage of operations and planning during the programme almost broke into tears as she was just about to give her closing remarks.
According to her, the success wouldn’t have been possible without a staunch commitment to saving the lives of children who needed to be saved.
She commended the Nurses, Anaesthetises, Cardiologist and Qatar Charity who worked together as one-body, to make the dream that was started last year, November, come to fruition.
Considering the challenges that took place, the Professor of Texas University, Professor Mohammed Tawfiq Numan, who majored as an Interventional Paediatric Cardiologist revealed that the almost 40 million population of Ghana needed more Paediatric Cardiologists for their health needs and, therefore, urged the government to help train more Ghanaian students and doctors abroad.
According to professor Numan, the collaboration between all nurses, doctors and players home and abroad was tested when the team needed a “cover stint”, a device that was needed to treat a 10-year old boy with narrow Aorta, but was not available in Africa.
He said the Medical team had to reach out to Lebanon for the device and from Lebanon the device went to Qatar to be sent to Ghana.
“But unfortunately, there was nobody at that time to send it. So it was sent back to Lebanon, through Beirut to Ghana, for the boy to be treated. The boy went through the treatment successfully and was discharged”.
The Director of Medical Affairs at UGMC Dr Kwame Anim Boamah, in his closing remarks expressed appreciation for the wonderful collaboration between Qatar Charity and UGMC and was happy for the successful outcome of the collaboration and indicated the commitment of UGMC to the long term goals of the relations.
The team of nine medical specialists who led the successful implementation of the programme at the end of the closing event were honoured with trophies and certificates of participation.
GNA
