Ray of Hope

Today is Mother’s Day .  I want to use this medium to wish all the wonderful women out there who have worked and are working tirelessly to bring up the next generation, a Happy Mother’s Day . God bless all the mothers in our lives for their sacrifices and the unconditional love they show us. As we celebrate our mothers, I am reminded of this wonderful news. A few weeks ago (March 25), I wrote about a young girl who was burned as a toddler and whose hand became deformed due to the post-burn wound management. Thanks to a generous donor, Melissa underwent a successful hand surgery on Tuesday May 9, 2017 to correct this deformity. The post-operative period was unremarkable and she was discharged on Saturday May 13. To God be the Glory. Right before the surgery. Rev Rodgers holding onto Melissa; her mother, wearing the brown jacket, When Melissa’s uncle heard about the kindness being shown to her niece by strangers, he decided to give his life to Christ. How am...

A 2010 publication by the Ghana health service reported the doctor to population ratio as 1: 11, 929    while a 2014 report showed a slight decrease (1: 9,043) 1,2 . These numbers indicate that Ghanaian doctors are burdened with a high patient load. As a result, patients may not receive the needed care and in some instances, a delay in receiving appropriate care even in emergencies. The above problem was highlighted a few weeks ago when we admitted a young adult male patient to the emergency department in our hospital. He presented with diffuse abdominal pain, vomiting, rigors and hyperthermia. A focused assessment revealed a strangulated inguinal hernia which warranted immediate surgical intervention. Since our facility lacks a surgeon, we contacted the tertiary facility about 45 minutes away to refer this patient for further management but were informed that they were at full capacity and lacked extra hospital beds to admit this patient. Our pleas that this was an emerg...

Warning: This is a very long post. Enjoy :) After our first week of activities in Harare, the team took a 540-mile journey to the Victoria falls area of the country, leaving on Monday, March 13. Thankfully, we had a good car and an experienced driver yet the number of police checkpoints (approximately 30) and toll booths made it an arduous journey, especially for our driver. We were stopped at a fourth of these police checkpoints. Victoria falls is an amazing site and experience, especially from the air, and I don’t think words are enough to describe this seventh wonder of the world. It is a sight to behold. Apart from the falls, there were tours on the Zambezi river and at the Chobe national park in Botswana. We also shared interesting culinary experiences testing our curious taste buds with Impala, Mopane worms, Guinea fowl, Kudu, Warthog, Crocodile tail and whitebait. The team at the Victoria falls  On Thursday March 16, we returned to Harare arriving ar...

On Tuesday March 7, my dad and I joined Brad and Jessica Johnson, Brian Keene and Tom Wilson on a mission to Harare, Zimbabwe. Brad, Jessica, Brian and Tom were on a South African airline flight from Washington DC to South Africa. This flight made a quick stop in Accra to drop and pick passengers in Ghana. This made it possible for my dad and I to join the team. The flight from Accra to South Africa was about 5.5 hours and another 1.5 hours from Johannesburg to Harare. We arrived in Harare around 9:30 pm local time. Harare is 2 hours ahead of Ghana and 7 hours ahead of central standard time in the US. We were met at the airport by our host, Rodgers and Emmah Kativu, church leaders and some family members. Rodgers is the head pastor for the Methodist Revival Church International (MRCI) in Zimbabwe. After the usual pleasantries and introductions, we departed the airport for the Coghlan Villa guest house, our residence during our stay in Harare. We rested the following day, v...

Since the beginning of this month, my house has become a busy hub. Three medical students from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), their instructor (family medicine physician) and another family medicine physician practicing in Philadelphia are spending a month with us at the hospital. Their main purpose is to learn about tropical medicine and help patients in a low resource setting such as ours. They are living with me in a guest house owned by the hospital. This guest house has been my primary residence since I arrived in Ankaase in March 2016. Another group of students and an instructor are spending some time in Wenchi, about two and half hours north west of Ankaase, at our sister hospital facility.  Heading to the hospital. From left to right: Julia Vileisis (4th year medical student - VCU), Dr. Asena Madison (family medicine physician), Sam Sessou (4th year med student-VCU), Alex Rankin (4th year med student-VCU) and Dr Shormeh Yeboah, family medicine physici...

On Sunday January 22, 2017, I traveled to Mampong, a town about an hour northeast of the hospital, with Dr. Nkansah, Rev. Eric (hospital's chaplain) and Mr. Kofi to visit the triplets. Gina (their mom) is currently staying with an Aunt in Mampong and we were glad to learn that she and the kids were being treated well. We visited with them for about an hour, presented a few essential items and headed back to Ankaase. It's a true miracle to see how well these kids are developing considering the odds against them at birth. Delivered at 30 weeks, their survival chances in Ghana were slim. We are thankful to God for His mercies and provisions. From left to right: Dr. Nkansah, Rev. Eric and I holding the precious babies Another view of the infants. On July 20, 2016, I wrote about an infant with cleft lip/palate (http://anidasowoha.blogspot.com/2016/07/prayer-request.html) who underwent corrective surgery to fix his lip. That was the first of two surgeries needed ...

This story is being written with permission from the parents of the babies. On November 10, 2016, the hospital’s chaplain introduced me to a young couple; an 18-year-old female (Gina) and a 19- year old male (Prince). Gina, 7 months pregnant with triplets at that time, had been admitted for malaria and anemia management. Gina is an orphan whose mom passed when she (Gina) was 3 years old.  Due to what I will describe as complex family issues, this couple had trouble paying their hospital bills. In addition, they were being evicted from their home. We settled their bills with help from the Anidasowoha fund and followed up on their accommodation issues. After multiple discussions with family members, we found accommodation for them; the boy would stay with his mom until high school graduation (he is in the final year) and the girl, with her sister (Tina) until the babies were born. During this process, we met several family members including the young girl’s family head. The f...