Rickmes Foundation donates to Ridge Hospital - The Daily Statesman Newspaper

Rickmes Foundation, a non-governmental health organisation in Accra, has donated medical items, worth over GH₵50,000.00, to the pediatric and neurosurgeon departments of the Greater Accra Regional (Ridge) Hospital in Accra. The gesture is part of its social support to healthcare in the country.

The items include external 20 pieces of ventricular draining system, 20 pieces of low ventriculoperitoneal (vp) shunt pressure, 20 pieces of medium vp shunt pressure, 30 vp high pressure and 30 cerebral catheters.

The presentation, according to the Executive Director of the Foundation, Patrick Essuman, forms part of efforts to support patients at the neurological department who cannot afford to purchase these supplies to help manage their disorders. It is also to help save the lives of children grappling with spina bifida and hydrocephalous.

Spina bifida is the inability of the spinal cord to form properly in the room, which affects mobility and also leads to infections of the kidney and bladder. Hydrocephalus is the accumulation of fluid in the head which affects the formation of the brain.

According to Mr Essuman, the gesture also formed part of the many donations the Foundation had made to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Komfo Anokye Hospital to help in the management and control of the disease in the country and assuage the suffering of parents.

He explained that the Foundation, by the gesture, intends to put back smiles on the faces of children and parents on admission at the hospital, adding that it was also in line with the Foundation’s social responsibility to Ghanaians.

Appreciation

The Consultant Neurosurgeon of the Ridge Hospital, Dr. Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, who received the items, expressed appreciation to the Foundation for the gesture. Also as Director (Institutional Care) of the Ghana Health Service, he noted that the items presented “are really the things that we have been lacking, particularly the shunts, that majority of children need but parents cannot afford due to financial constraints”.

“When such gestures happen, it is mostly seen when the final results begin to manifest. Rickmes Foundation has done very well and we applaud them. One of the challenges that we do have in Ridge Hospital is, mothers who deliver with cases of hydrocephalus and other diseases which require these vp shunts to divert these disorders and make sure that these kids develop normally.

“And usually, after one year, if we don’t get these procedures done, the condition escalates affecting their brain. Unfortunately, majority of the cases being recorded here are coming from people who cannot actually afford. They cannot afford the shunts and absolutely nothing, and it put us in a situation where we have to delay a lot before they can mobilise funds to be able to purchase the shunt device,” he said.

Against this backdrop, he noted that these supplies would go a long way to help a lot of people, assuring collaborative efforts with Rickmes Foundation to make sure that our children have a better future devoid of health deformities.

For her part, the Head of Child Health Department of the Hospital, Dr. Charlyne Kilba, said the gesture was a welcoming one because it would save most of the less privileged families who cannot buy the medical supplies like the shunts.

“Some of these affected children are low income families, and so to have the devices available, there wouldn’t be delay in placing the shunts and the outcomes will be better because the earlier the shunts are placed, the better it is going to be in helping numerous families,” she added.

Dr. Kilba therefore urged other philanthropic organisations to emulate this example, saying “NGO’s should come on board to support in diverse ways they can to address the health needs of Ghanaians”.