Paralysed Teen Pleads For Support To Pay For Critical Surgery

A fifteen-year-old boy is battling for life with a spine injury on the hospital bed after he fell off a mango tree at Wiamoase in Ashanti Region.

Doctors at the local SDA Hospital says Ibrahim Abubakari urgently needs over GHS20,000 to undergo surgery to survive.

He had earlier been discharged from Komfo Anokye Hospital because relatives could not afford the cost of treatment.

It's twelve noon. Ibrahim’s peers in school but here he is confined to the hospital bed, hardly able to move his body.

He suffered a fracture of the spinal cord which has left him paralysed with multiple bed sores.

It an unpleasant end to what began as an exciting mango hunting expedition.

Doctors say he can survive for only a few months unless he undergoes an emergency operation.

Michael Ado is Medical Superintendent at Wiamoase SDA Hospital, and says "the patient was brought in with the history of fall from a mango tree and due to the seriousness of the injury and our capacity to handle the patient; we referred him to KATH for further management.”

“He was seen at KATH, various investigations were done including a CT scan and they realized he had a spinal injury so they scheduled for surgery but the patient could not afford the amount being charged for the surgery.”

“They decided to come home. He had developed some sores at his back and was asked to come for dressing. Unfortunately, the relatives didn't know how much to care for the patient because the boy is paralyzed, he has to be turned frequently but they couldn't do that, so that worsens the sores. She says they need over 20,000 Ghana cedis for him to undergo the surgery so we are appealing to good meaning people to assist him.”

“If the surgery is not done then this guy is paralyzed for the rest of his life. With the complication of the bed sores and with his exposed bones, if not much is done and infections set in, he can go off at any time."

The doctor appealed for funds for Ibrahim’s surgery.

Ibrahim’s parents cannot raise GHS20,000 for medical intervention.

Frustrated mother, Amina Meriga, joins son to make a public appeal for help.

"I am calling on people to come to my aid," bedridden Ibrahim calls out.

"I was in the northern region with my sick husband, when I heard my child had fallen off a mango tree. i quickly came down sent my son to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. They said he required a surgery but I didn't have the money so I sent to SDA hospital for treatment. I'm calling on people to come to our aid," Ibrahim’s mother, Meriga joins in the appeal for fund to perform her son’s surgery.