Rajinder Bhagat presenting the ventilator to the centre
THE RECONSTRUCTIVE Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has taken delivery of four new ventilators with anesthesia machines to facilitate activities of the centre.
The donation made by the Indian High Commissioner, Rajinder Bhagat together with the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kwesi Ahwoi and the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of FORWIN (GH) Ltd and FINATRADE Group of Companies, followed an appeal by the centre for additional ventilators.
Prior to donation of the equipment which cost $88,000, the centre had only one ventilator which served patients in the Intensive Care Unit.
Presenting the equipment, Kwesi Ahwoi said the urgent need for new ventilators came to his notice when some fishermen got burnt from an explosion at the London site at Brawire in Axim while buying premix fuel.
He said nine of the victims who had severe burns were brought to the KBTH burns center; however only one of them was put on a ventilator simply because there was only one available.
He said due to the lack of ventilators and the severity of their burns, all the patients except one passed away.
?I there and then made a pledge to the doctors to help in securing some ventilators for the burns centre,? he said.
He therefore thanked the philanthropists for their support and appealed to others to help the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre.
Rajinder Bhagat, in a statement, said he was pleased to be part of the initiative to support the centre with ventilators which will help save lives.
He said the people of India were committed to ensuring quality health care delivery hence their support to the centre.
Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, Director of the Burns Centre, who received the donation on behalf of the hospital, expressed his gratitude to the donor for responding to their urgent call for ventilators.
He said more than 80 per cent of burns were preventable as they occurred due to unsafe use of petroleum.
He said the centre which was established 15 years ago had only three burns consultant plastic surgeons, 50 nurses, one physiotherapist and several senior and junior nurses that undertook close to 1,200 operations in one year.
He therefore appealed to policy and decision makers to prioritize burns issues and raise awareness regarding the safe use of dangerous items such as gas and petroleum.
By Daniel Dicke & Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
