One bed ICU for Neurosurgery at Korle-bu is unacceptable – Neurosurgeon in Michael Asiamah’s case speaks

A Neurosurgeon at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and one of the doctors of Michael Kofi Asiamah, the 13 year old boy who lost his life after two successful brain surgeries at the hospital, Dr Hadi Mohammed Abdullah has said the one intensive care unit bed  (ICU) allocated to the  Neurosurgical unit of Ghana’s premier hospital is unacceptable.

He has therefore called on authorities to address the development to help save lives after surgeries.

Speaking on the State of Affairs on GhOne Television on Thursday, May 13, monitored by GhanaPlus.com, he also called for the entire Neurosurgical unit and the intensive care unit of the hospital to be retooled to be able to serve its purpose.

According to him, it was not normal for a neurosurgical ward to operate without monitors, an extremely helpful device which identifies changes and complications in a patient’s condition quickly for help and  defibrillator, a medical device that restore a normal heartbeat in cases of cardiac arrest  at the bed side of patients.

These two he said could have made a difference in the young Michael’s case if they were available at his bed side at the time his condition worsen.

Fix hospital beds with monitors, defibrillators at wards

He recommend every bed in the country’s hospitals, especially, neurosurgical wards must have a monitor and defibrillator also known as AED.

“I think that right now as citizens of this country we must recognized the fact that it is not normal to have a neurosurgical ward or any other ward in this country not to have monitors by the bed side of the patients, especially so, for patients who have undergone surgery . You need monitors. You don’t need to move the patient to an area of monitor”.

Dr Abdullah added that defibrillators must be fixed at the wards of every hospital including  gyms or places where people engage in cardiac activities.

“And secondly we must make sure we fix AEDs on the ward, all our wards not just the neurosurgery unit but all wards in Korle-Bu and many of our hospitals, and in fact even if you have gyms, places that people indulge in cardiac activities our gyms, we should have AEDs so it is a shame that most of our hospital do not even have this defibrillator. Thirdly I will say that our ICU situation needs to be fix, it is unacceptable for neurosurgery to be done without a recovery ward. The one bed ICU for neurosurgery is unacceptable”.

“So to summarize, we need monitors, we need defibrillators , we need to make sure that our ICU is fix so our post up cases can survive,” he added.

Source: GhanaPlus.com