KATH to Get a Paediatric Heart Centre

Kumasi, March 10, GNA - The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi is collaborating with the Children's Hospital of Boston in the United States, for the establishment of a Heart Centre in Kumasi. The proposed Centre, to be sited within the KATH, would initially provide treatment for children only to complement the work of the Cardiothoracic Centre in Korle-Bu, Accra, stakeholders have said. Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Chief Executive Officer of KATH, announced this at the weekend during a heart screening exercise for about 100 children resident in Kumasi and its environs.

He said apart from helping to set up the proposed Centre, the Children's Hospital in Boston would also train professionals at KATH to take over the facility.

Jointly undertaking the screening with KATH medical professionals were cardio surgeons and experts from the US. The screening would be followed by surgeries on children found with serious cardiac problems.

Dr Nsiah-Asare said the Ghana Paediatric Heart Centre would soon launch a fund to raise money to maintain the proposed facility. Dr. Francis Fynn-Thompson, Paediatric Cardiac Surgeon and leader of the screening team was happy about the turnout, saying as a Ghanaian and the initiator of the exercise, he deemed it worthy to help save young Ghanaian lives from heart-related diseases because they are expensive to treat.