KATH needs cash to save lives of 700 children with open heart conditions

Authorities of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi are appealing to spirited individuals and philanthropists to help the hospital save the lives of children who need to go under open heart surgery in order to save their lives or else they may die.

According to the head of Unit of the KATH’s Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, more than seven hundred children in the Hospital’s record need open heart surgery but families of these children are unable to shoulder the responsibility calling on the public for support.

“…And all this if we don’t operate on them, within two, three five to ten years, they will all die”, Dr. Isaac Okyere disclosed to journalists after a team of doctors from James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough’s, in the UK joined locals to complete a successful open heart surgery on some patients on admission who cannot foot their medical bills.

According to the renowned surgeon, the hospital also currently attending to about two hundred adults with heart-related conditions which they are working day and night to treat them.

Dr. Enoch Akowuah, who led the UK team to Ghana explained that the cost of paediatrics heart surgery is in Ghana is $20,000 which is very costive in UK and Ghana.

Meanwhile, management of KATH has set up an endowment fund to ensure comprehensive retooling of the facility to save the lives of patients who cannot foot their medical bills.