Rawlings visits young accident victim at Komfo Anokye

Former President Jerry John Rawlings was at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital last Saturday to visit a young boy who was hit by a vehicle at Offinso in Kumasi a few months ago.

The vehicle knocked down Peter Mensah, who was six at the time of the accident and is now seven, while returning home from school crushing his legs thereby leading to a double amputation.

Peter who has had multiple surgeries, including the amputation, graft and plastic surgery, has miraculously responded positively to treatment and was in good spirit when the former President visited the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the hospital to see things for himself. Dr  John Adabie Appiah, Senior Specialist, Paediatric Critical Care and Head of the PICU, briefed the former President on the treatment Peter had received since he was admitted to the facility.

He has adapted well to an automatic wheel chair and controls it without assistance.

Flt Lt Rawlings said he was moved when he saw the ‘pitiful’ video of Peter being lifted into a taxi with his limbs hanging off his body and decided to visit anytime he had the opportunity to travel to Kumasi.

The former President interacted with other patients at the ward and commended the doctors and nurses for the hard work in ensuring Peter’s recovery and called for support from well-meaning people to cater for his huge medical bills. He promised to do what he could to raise some support for the treatment.

Flt Lt Rawlings also commended Madam Anita Sefa Boakye whose huge financial contributions facilitated the  numerous surgeries and treatments Peter underwent.

 She told the former President she chanced upon the boy’s predicament during a visit to the hospital a couple of months ago.

Peter’s grandmother, Esther Darkoaa, who has cared for him since the accident, and his mother, Alice Fosuaa, who incidentally, was heavily pregnant when her son suffered the accident and has since delivered, were at the hospital during the visit.