Twenty-three year old Apana Abolga can no longer swallow his food the normal way – through his mouth. His meals have to be made in liquid form and fed him via a tube connected to his stomach through an opening that has been cut on his side.
This is as a result of a complication he suffered following a surgery performed on him at the Tamale Teaching Hospital to get rid of a bone that got choked in his throat.
Apana Abolga who is unemployed and his poor parents live in Zaare, a suburb of Bolgatanga and will now have to cough up at least Nineteen Thousand Ghana Cedis to get his situation reversed.
Sometime last year, Apana got his throat choked by fish bone after eating a plate of rice and beans popularly known as Waakye. After several attempts to get rid of the bone by coughing and swallowing heavy carbohydrates, he went with his mother to the Bolagatanga hospital for check up.
There, they were told that there was no bone in Apana’s throat but rather, a sore. After several weeks of taking medicines to treat the sore, Apana’s situation was getting worse. According to his mother, Apana coughed out a lot of blood one night and so she took him to the Tamale teaching Hospital the next day. She said: “At Tamale, they performed an operation on him and removed the bone. They then admitted him for one month and said he had to be transferred to korle-bu”. “At korle-bu, we went to the cardiothoracic center where they performed another surgery and fixed this tube through which I now feed him. Now they say we should pay, so that they can remove the tube but we can’t afford it”. She added.
At the moment, Apana is going through a lot of pain. He told me: “I am always in a state of discomfort because something is always piercing me inside. My mother has always blend my food and with a syringe, feed me through this tube. And I have to be fed several times in a day. It is not easy. That is why I am calling for help to get the surgery done.”
Doctors at the National Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle Bu teaching Hospital in Accra where he had his recent surgery say Apana owes an amount of Ten Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty-eight Ghana Cedis (GHC 10, 748) as cost of the surgery that has already been performed. This amount has to be paid plus an extra three thousand dollars or its equivalent in Ghana Cedis for a second and final surgery to be performed on him, so he can eat orally again.
Apana’s mother, Ayampoka says they cannot raise the needed amount of money and is calling for help. “It has been six months since the tube was fixed into him. The tube is now weak and it has also become more expensive to feed him because he has to be fed at least five times every day. And that is costly for us so we cannot even afford the money for the surgery”, she lamented adding: “That is why we are appealing for help to get the operation done, so that he can start eating the normal way again”.
How you can donate to help Apana
If you are in Accra, send your contributions to Joy News, Multi TV located at Kokomlemle opposite Joy FM. Contact: 0302211688.
In the Upper East Region, all who wish to make contributions to help Apana Abolga can do so by donating to the Upper East Emergency Tertiary Healthcare Foundation Fund. Call these phone numbers and someone will come to you and take your donation: 0208369956 and 0243259347. When you make any donation, you will be issued a receipt from the Ghana health service directorate, Upper East.
Also you can make donations at the accounts department of A1 Radio or at the Regional health services directorate. Or better still; deposit it at the Upper East Emergency Tertiary Healthcare Foundation Fund bank account at the Ghana Commercial Bank, Bolgatanga Branch. Just walk into the bank and say you want to make a deposit into the Emergency healthcare fund and you will be given the necessary assistance.
If you are not in any of the above mentioned regions, call Joy News Upper East Correspondent, Albert Sore on 0209716959 for directions as to how you can make your donation.
By: Albert Sore | A1radioonline.com | Ghana
