Yesterday, I went to the only children’s hospital in Accra to write a story on a new surgical facility being built there. In a hospital the size of a medium apartment complex, nearly 200 to 300 young patients lined the benches and walls waiting their turn to be seen by one of only ten doctors.
The emergency room is packed with children laying two to a bed severely sick with complications of anemia, malaria and other water-born illnesses. The nurses say they are sometimes treating a dying child on one side of a bed as another sleeps uneasily beside. With the new facility, the hospital will be able to perform surgeries on young patients instead of referring them to Korle-Bu, the largest Accra hospital.
The children’s hospital has two vehicles available to transport children when they need to be taken to the other hospital for operations, and one of those vehicles is being repaired for a leaky roof. The other vehicle was purchased 11 years ago by Italian children who gave up their Christmas presents to raise money for the ambulance and it also is in dire need of attention. Back in the emergency room, the children appear waxy-skinned and deflated looking. I watched a mother cradle a small boy as his eyes rolled up into his head and his eyeballs fluttered to correct it. Keep in mind, this children’s hospital was ranked the no. 1 hospital in Accra last year and it really is a good facility for West African standards.
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