KATH and Restore Mission-USA provide free plastic surgery to patients

Patients with various degrees of deformities who hitherto could not afford the high cost of plastic surgery will have the deformities corrected at no cost.

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and a US-based not-for-profit organization, Restore Mission, are set to provide free plastic and reconstructive surgeries to over 60 needy patients.

Experts say the high cost of surgery to correct burns and congenital body anomalies means many of such victims are denied care in Ghana.

Patients with face, neck, chest, arms, limbs, hands and the feet deformities are expected to get them corrected through the free surgery.

The Restore Mission, led by a Ghanaian-born US-based Consultant Plastic Surgeon through its annual humanitarian surgical programme will offer the services at no cost.

The screening process has already started to select potential beneficiaries for the programme which ends on September 23, 2016.

Consultant and Head of the Plastic, Burns and Reconstructive Surgery Unit at KATH, Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso who has been speaking about the importance of the surgery to patients say patients who could not have afforded treatment are the targets.

“Those patients who cannot pay for the services are the foremost targets. The other criteria we look at are those patients who have serious functional challenges in terms of joint deformities, other congenital or acquired and patients who have also suffered deformities due to injuries such as burns,” he says.

According to him, because of the expensive nature of treatment for plastic surgery, many health insurance schemes do not cover them, depriving many Ghanaians the needed care.

"The other thing is that we are in a country that is developing and a lot of people who will need these services can really not afford because of their economic status,” Dr. Owusu-Danso has revealed.

One of the objectives of the Restore Mission-USA is to help equip the Plastic, Burns and Reconstructive Surgery Unit at KATH to adequately provide quality plastic surgical services beyond the humanitarian exercise.

International Coordinator of the Restore Mission-USA, Don Sutherland tells Nhyira FM, US-based Dr Obeng is committed to helping train doctors and support KATH to be self-sufficient.

“We want to bring them [KATH] with like Liposuction machine the Laser machine, so whatever we can do to help them build their Plastic Surgery Machine, Dr Obeng is committed to doing that and that's what we are doing," he said.

"And so, you know the whole thing is to try and make sure KATH, in particular, is self-sufficient. So his hope is to train doctors, build the center so he really doesn't have to come back to do specialized things and he's committed to doing that,” he added.