Dr Yaw Amoah’s path to urology
When Dr Yaw Amoah was five years old, his mother sent him to the hospital for medical attention when he fell sick at a point.
Advertisement
An injection was prescribed, and hell broke loose when a nurse administered it. Out of fear and pain, Yaw insulted all the nurses around and the doctor, while in tears.
His mother, Madam Christiana Serwah, was so embarrassed and apologised to the doctor and nurses but the doctor asked her not to worry, adding that her son would definitely become a doctor.
In a chat at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra last Wednesday, Dr Amoah said: “My mother took this statement from the doctor as some sort of prophecy and did everything she could to ensure I became a doctor.
At any point when I wanted to digress, she redirected me. At one point when I wanted to do business, she discouraged me and made sure I stayed on the path to medical school. She even moved to Accra from Kwahu Pepease because of that, and today here I am.”
Dr Amoah is a urologist with a special interest in Fertility, Reconstructive Surgery, Microsurgical techniques and Micromanipulations. Apart from working at Korle Bu, he consults at Mustard Health Systems in Kotobabi in Accra.
Asked why he chose to specialise in urology, Dr Amoah laughed, saying: “Something about it attracted me. Maybe it was the name. During my studies and two-week rotation in that speciality, I was fascinated about what they did”.
“So far, it has been good, very interesting and my bias is more towards fertility issues and reproduction. You will be amazed at how closely we work with obstetricians and gynaecologists,” he said.
Other Trending Stories
Most challenging case
On what he considered the most challenging case he treated, Dr Amoah said it had been patients with bladder cancer. “The surgery takes eight hours and it is a life-changing experience for patients; physically, psychologically and everything. Every week, I do one of such case,” he noted.
Dr Amoah examining a patient on one of the wards at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
“It’s the kind of surgery which includes taking out the bladder and in the case of females, the uterus in addition to the bladder and creating another passage for the patient to pass urine into a bag outside his or her body. But if not done, the patient is likely to die,” he explained.
On the cause of the disease, the urologist said he had found a trend where people who lived around water bodies and suffered bilharzia often developed that kind of cancer after about 30 years.
Advancements in urology and misconceptions
Talking about some advancements in urology which excited him, Dr Amoah mentioned micro-surgery and minimally invasive surgery,
“For instance, now, we need not open patients with kidney stones. We go to the kidney with a surgical camera and fragment the stones with laser. This reduces recovery time, no big cut and lesser risks,” he explained.
Dr Amoah as a toddler
On misconceptions about urological health, Dr Amoah said some people thought that urologists only deal with the prostate and male patients.
“But we handle many others, the bladder, scrotum, urological diseases in both females and males, fertility and more,” he added. Dr Amoah said he always seized any opportunity available to educate the public on some of those things.
“One thing I am always passionate about educating the public on is undescended testes. Oftentimes, people think that when a baby boy is born with that, it will descend with time.
But it never does and affects fertility adversely when he grows. So it is something that medical attention must be sought, with no time wasted,” he explained.
“Testicular torsion is another condition. The testes are twisted and oftentimes come with a lot of pain. If surgery is not done within four hours to untwist it, the testes would be lost and that affects fertility.
It often happens to one and is followed by the other,” he said. The urologist expressed concern about some herbal practitioners who would keep cases that are beyond them until the last minute when things go bad before the patients visit the hospital, adding that medical interventions for such cases became very challenging.
Advertisement
“We are also seeing many cases of kidney failures as a result of some so-called herbal medicines. The patients finally come to the hospital when it is only dialysis or kidney transplant that can be recommended. If only they came earlier, it may not have come to that,” he said.
“One herbalist kept a woman with an abdominal mass, which was cancerous, for a whole year giving her some concoctions he described as medicine he learnt how to prepare from his grandfather or so,” he added.
He advised that herbal practitioners should be held in check to make it impossible for them to keep such patients but refer them quickly.
Educational background
Dr Amoah is a fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. He attended the University of Ghana and the University of Ghana Medical School. The urologist also has an MBA in Health Services Management from the University of Applied Management and attended Ebenezer Senior High School.
Advertisement
Dr Amoah (hands raised) with a team of other specialists in the theatre
He loves playing tennis and wildlife which he described as amazing. “Can you believe that animals behave just like humans in many ways? They even woo females. I watched a hungry male tiger leave a whole animal he had struggled to hunt , kill , and move to his territory, to a tigress he wanted to sleep with,” he observed.
Dr Amoah is married to Mrs Rebecca Amoah with whom he has five children --two sets of twins who are girls and a son.
They are Ewura Ama Serwah and Maame Ama Serwah Amoah, the first set of twins who are six years old, Kwadwo Preko Amoah his son who is three years old and Maame Akua Asor and Ewura Ama Asor Amoah the second set of twins who are a year old.
Advertisement
He looks forward to better facilities and equipment in the country to enable urologists improve on interventions in the interest of patients.
Writer’s e-mail: doreen.hammond@graphic.com.gh/aamakai@rocketmail.com