PLAN Int. settles medical bills for hole-in-heart boy

Accra, Dec. 18, GNA - PLAN International, a child-centred NGO, on Friday presented a cheque for $7,000.00 to the Cardiothoracic Centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, paving way for a surgical operation to be conducted on a five-year-old hole-in-heart boy.

The boy, Bernard Krampah, whose condition is also known in medical parlance as Ventricular Septal Defect, was detected three weeks after birth, making him experience difficulty in breathing and eating as well as sweating profusely because of the excessive pressure on one side of the heart. This makes him to suffer abnormal growth and the parents have been in and out of hospitals to keep him on medication in anticipation of funds from charity organizations to pay the doctors to perform the surgery.

Making the presentation at the Hospital in Accra, Mr Samuel Paulos, Country Director of PLAN, Ghana, said the organisation was interested in the survival, protection and improvement of children. Mr Paulos said PLAN's objective was to work to provide an enabling environment for the well-being and growth of children to enable them to achieve their full potential in life, the reason it provided the funds for the surgery. "That is why when we received an appeal from the parents of Bernard to assist in paying the bill we did not hesitate," he said.

Dr Martin Tamatey, a Heart Surgeon at the Centre who received the cheque, said surgery was expensive making it unaffordable to most parents. "This is why benevolent organizations and individuals need to come to the aid of parents whose children face such conditions," Dr Tamatey said. He said the Hospital had set the second week of January next year for the surgery. It was all joy for the parents of Bernard as they thanked God for His mercies and PLAN for coming to the aid of their son.

Mr Isaac Krampah, the father of Bernard, said this would make the family to feel free and forget about any sudden eventuality which might befall their son.

PLAN International has also made available $5,000.00 for the upkeep of orphan twins at a village in Upper West Region whose mother died at child birth and their father is facing mental problems because of the incident. PLAN International is working in 48 developing countries, including Ghana, and supported by 18 advanced countries.

In Ghana, it is currently working in five out of the 10 regions, focusing on Child Survival and Adolescent Reproductive Health, Quality Education for all Children, Water and Sanitation, Microfinance, Food Security and Awareness on the rights and responsibilities of children.