Doctor attempts to help Ghana

CLEVELAND, USA -- Doctor Charity Kankam is living up to her name because she's trying to raise $150,000 to send three dialysis machines to her home country of Ghana.

African nurses are already here training and hoping they'll have something to save lives with when they return.

Dr. Kankam wants to prevent unnecessary deaths in her homeland of Ghana Africa.

“Healthy people who go to the hospital with something minor [may] end up with kidney failure and because we don't have the supportive system of dialysis to pull them through, they usually die,” she says.

Kankam brought four African nurses here to learn how to use dialysis machines.

“The most common complication that you will see is hypo tension low blood pressure,” said Julie Zubek, R.N.

Centers for Dialysis Care is training them for free.

Nearly every hospital in the U.S. has a dialysis machine in Ghana, a country of almost 20 million people there are less than five and patients have to pay a fee of more than a $100 just to use it

“Sadly and often times they have no option but to turn people away because they can't just afford to go on the dialysis machine,” said Patience Enyimayew, R.N.

The nurses will essentially be kidney specialists after their six-month visit. Kankam is hoping to get three dialysis machines into Ghana's Military Hospital that treats nearly eighty percent of the population...

“With three machines, I believe we can do maybe 12 to 18 treatments a day,” she said.

The nurses hope to have the chance to use what they've learned.

Doctor Kankam chose to specialize in renal failure after her sister-in-law in Ghana died from it at age 35 following the birth of her child.

If you'd like to help her mission, tax deductible donations are being accepted at any Fifth Third Bank under the acute dialysis unit fund for Ghana.

You can also send mail to:

A.D.U. Fund for Ghana

6701 Rockside Road, suite 365

Independence, OH 44131

(216)901-5706

Dr. Kankam's email is [email protected]