Harriet is dying; needs $13,150 to live

A thirty-seven-year-old senior typist at the Asuom Senior High School in the Eastern Region, Harriet Boateng, is battling for survival and needs succour urgently.

Doctors at the Neurosurgery Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), who have been taking care of her since the year 2013 when her condition started deteriorating, have diagnosed her of having a brain disorder known as Artero-venous malformation (high grade) which has rendered her almost paralysed, aside suffering a failing eyesight.

This reporter was almost moved to tears when he first saw Harriet who could barely stand on her feet and her frail-looking mother.

Harriet suffers occasional loss of consciousness and severe headache.

She has, thus, been compelled by circumstances to stop work and has been depending on her jobless aged mother and single parent Eugenia Oforiwaa Essibrah for survival.

In a letter dated January 18, 2016 from the Department of Surgery of Korle Bu and addressed to whoever it may concern, Dr G.K Wepeba, a Consultant Neurosurgeon at the hospital, said “she is due for a brain excision and radiosurgery, which we do not perform in Ghana” and that a hospital in India, Apollo Hospital, was prepared to do it.

But Harriet and her mother do not have the means to foot the bill for her treatment which stands at a whopping $13, 150 as indicated in a proforma invoice issued by the prestigious hospital. It is dated December 22, 2015 and includes cost of the surgery, 10 days’ stay in a guest house, medication, consumables and others.

Even though doctors at Korle Bu said “a delay in her treatment could lead to serious disability or death”, Harriet and the mother have still not been able to raise the amount needed to travel to India for her to undergo the surgery. What is more, they do not even have travelling documents (passport and tickets) to India and back.

Any further delays could also witness a rise in the cost of her treatment since the above cost was valid for only three months.

Harriet and her mother are therefore appealing to the general public—individuals, groups and organisations—to come to her rescue to enable her undergo the life-saving surgery by donating to any of the following account numbers: GCB, Akim Oda branch -2021010100560, MTN Mobile Money number 0244602277 or Tigo Cash number 0271271621.