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Parents and guardians have been advised to seek professional medical services for children with disorders rather than resorting to unapproved medications and services.
A paediatric surgeon and Founder of the HOPE for Little Lives, an NGO, Maame Tekyiwa Botchway, said “If something should happen to your child, go to the hospital, don’t buy herbal medicine.
The hospital is not a death sentence”.
She said by reporting such cases early, doctors would be able to detect the exact causes of ailment and find appropriate treatment.
Dr Botchway gave the advice at a pediatric surgery awareness and fundraising gala in Accra last Saturday.
The NGO provides medical screening, health education and pediatric surgical care to disadvantaged communities in the country.
Dr Botchway said the foundation was established to augment the government’s effort to address the gap in pediatric surgery and give hope to families due to the limited number of surgeons in the country.
“I believe that every child, regardless of where they come from has a potential.
They are like eggs and if they are given the right support, they will be able to reach their right potential when they grow up,” she said.
Dr Botchway said since the establishment of the foundation, it had conducted free surgeries for conditions such as hernia, hydrocele, undescended testes, hypospadias, lumps and bumps.
She said in all, her outfit had performed 250 surgeries across five communities in the country.
Dr Botchway, however, appealed for support to enable the organisation to reach out to more people, especially in underserved communities.
A former Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and the country’s first female paediatric surgeon, Prof. Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse, who joins the foundation every year to conduct surgeries, said she and her colleagues sometimes had to borrow instruments to conduct the surgeries.
“We will continue to do our best to address the health challenges of vulnerable children until every single district hospital in the country has a pediatric surgeon; we have not arrived yet,” she said.
For her part, the Founder and Executive Director of the Salt Light Ministries, Rev. Dr Joyce Aryee, commended the foundation for its humanitarian projects saying “continue doing what you are doing because so many people need your touch to have a better life”.
“Let’s consistently support the foundation not because we need anything in return because those children cannot give us anything, but God will smile on us,” she added.
