USA medical team conducts free surgery at Yendi Hospital

A five-day free medical outreach exercise has ended at the Yendi Hospital in the Northern Region.

The exercise, which included surgeries, was carried out by a 24-Member Medical Team from Saint Louis in the United Staes of America (USA).

Members of the team included; Steve West, an ear, throat and nose surgeon; Jim Cassat, a general surgeon; Jon Limpert, a general surgeon; Cindy Basinski, a gynaecology surgeon and Nick Colloier and Joe Hass both nurse anaesthetics.

The leader of the team, Dr Jon Limpert, said the team was able to carry out 70 surgeries in Thyroidectomy to treat thyroid disorders, Hysterectomy to remove all or part of the uterus, Vagina Fistula repair, Myomectomy to remove uterine fibroids, Parotidectomy to remove all or part of the parotid gland — a large salivary gland located in front of and just below the ear and Lipoma excisions which is the removal of benign tumour of fatty tissue.

Global Mission Resources Centre (GMRC), a church organisation, in collaboration with Mission 318 in the United States of America (USA), a philanthropic organisation, donated hospital equipment worth $250,00 US to the hospital.

The equipment donated included trolleys, beds, examination tables for the Out-Patients Department (OPD), ventilator, supplies for the Children’s Ward, hospital equipment and surgical supplies.

The GMRC also pledged to supply 100,000 mosquito nets to residents of the metropolis to help curb incidences of malaria in the area.

Support

The Executive Officer and Founder of GMRC, Rev. Emmanuel Kwabena Mustapha, whose efforts led to the intervention, said the medical outreach programme in the Yendi Metropolis was started in 2008.

He said the church had also put up an Intensive Care Unit with telemedicine facility at the Yendi Hospital leading to a reduction in cases referred to the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

He said out of 400 patients booked for surgery this year, only 106 were operated upon by the medical team.

Rev. Mustapha said further that the church was in discussions with its partners and other collaborators to expand facilities at the Yendi Hospital to turn it into a modern hospital.

He said other interventions being undertaken by the church in the area included infrastructural development in education and sanitation.

Moreover, he said, the church found it necessary as a mission to support the government to socially and economically develop the country and quoted John 3:18, which reads: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth”, to buttress his point.

Yendi Hospital

The Medical Superintendent at the Yendi Hospital, Dr Ayuba Abdulai, said the facility is a referral hospital for 10 municipal and district assemblies in the eastern corridor of the country.

He said the hospital, which was built in 1947, currently had a 270-bed capacity.

Dr Ayuba appealed for more doctors and other health personnel as well as equipment and upgraded infrastructure and other critical needs for the hospital in order for it to save more lives.