Monday, January 17, 2011

6-Year Old Receives Life-Saving Heart Surgery



In partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital in Ghana, GHEI has facilitated a successful heart surgery for another patient in the BAB District. Six-year-old Portia Adjei Nipa (pictured left) was diagnosed with heart disease as an infant at the Ghana Bauxite Company hospital, a private hospital in Ghana’s Western Region. For years she suffered bouts of lethargy and difficulty breathing before she was hospitalized in 2008 at Korle-Bu Hospital in Ghana’s capital, Accra, where she received an initial cardiac surgery. She needed a follow-up operation, which was scheduled for April 2010 and would cost a prohibitive 6,000 euros. Her father (pictured right with Portia) tried in vain to fund-raise this money while Portia’s health rapidly declined: she was too weak to walk, talk, or attend school.

Thanks to the assessment and referral of UCLA Pediatric residents working with GHEI, Portia received her second surgery in October 2010. A team of pediatric cardiac surgeons from Boston Children’s Hospital supervised the surgery at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) as part of a medical mission to develop a self-sustaining pediatric cardiac center in Ghana. In 2008, GHEI began working with the Boston Children’s Hospital in Ghana team to identify rurally-based children with congenital heart disease and refer them for free surgery. Since her surgery in October, Portia has shown marked improvement: she walks and talks freely and her recovery looks promising. To date, 6 children have been treated for congenital heart disease and 4 have received life-saving heart surgeries thanks to GHEI’s advocacy efforts.


Read more about GHEI’s support of local health services on our website: http://ghei.org/health/support_of_local_healthcare_services.html

For more information on Boston Children’s Hospital in Ghana, visit their website: http://childrensinghana.typepad.com/childrens_hospital_boston/childrens-in-ghana.htm


--Natalie Rich, GHEI Communications Director





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