THE Namibian High Commission in Ghana has donated a high Independence-performance ventilator to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as part of its 33rd Independence Day activities.
The GH¢300,000 equipment is one of the machines needed to take care of critically ill children and it is considered a very vital part of the PICU.
It takes over the work of breathing for children who may not be able to breathe on their own.
The PICU of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has ventilators, but these are the conventional ones. So when it comes to very young children (neonates), there are some challenges with its use. These high-performance ventilators, however, have a port for both older children, of up to 17 years old, and neonates, thus children who are less than a month old.
The High Commissioner of Namibia to Ghana, Selma Ashipala Musavyi, who donated the item called on African countries to invest more in public health facilities because that would go a long way to contribute to productivity and also help them to perform much better. She said the High Commission decided to donate to the hospital because it would have a multiplying effect in terms of those who would benefit from it.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, expressed gratitude for the donation, pointing out that it was significant because the hospital would be 100 years old this year, and the donation was one of the ways the hospital could be supported to provide the best of care to people.
He appealed to corporate citizens and other embassies in the country to support them.
Touching on the significance of the equipment, the Head of the PICU of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Frank Owusu Sekyere, said sometimes, ill children could not breathe on their own, and it was during those moments that they needed a ventilator to take over the work of breathing.
“So, you can have a child with very bad pneumonia and the whole lung is solid.
Without something to take over the work of breathing, they may die.
The ventilator, therefore, takes over the work of breathing, which the child cannot do on his/her own.”
He said although they needed more than one piece of equipment, the initiative by the High Commission was a good start.
The donation took place on Monday 20 March 2023, a day before Namibia’s Independence Day which is marked on March 21 every year to commemorate the day the nation became a sovereign state.