Saving a life...

http://www.dawid.com/medicine/they-always-say-its-impossible-until-its-done/

I stumbled upon this story in the link above today. I had seen a few sentences of this story on a friend's timeline on Facebook but didn't have the heart to read it all as it just seemed like another sad story about the British High Commission refusing someone who needed urgent medical care a visa. Interestingly enough, the patient was referred to simply as "John". I sighed and clicked on a notification and a few minutes after, started to send out my emails for the day. However this morning, the same friend's timeline revealed the real name of this this patient and it turned out to be someone I knew very well, David Okai. We had both attended the same primary school and had lived in the military barracks as our fathers were Army Officers.

I had actually bumped into the "patient" two weeks ago at my doctor's. I had not seen him for ages so we chatted animatedly, he showed me pictures of his children, his parents, whom I had not seen for years and also introduced me to his wife Pamela, whom I was meeting for the first time. We shook hands and I smiled and explained to her that I had not seen her husband for some years. She smiled back and nodded it was evident.

So you can imagine my shock and disbelief when I clicked on the link above and read the events that took place shortly after I had seen him. I had tears streaming down my face by the time I had come to the end of the story. The funny thing was as I read, I kept passing comments, especially at the part where he had been refused the visa, and I heard myself say out loud, Oh gosh this surgeon has to go to Accra.

I have had such and awesome day! I have talked about this heroic act all day long, I have shared the above link with all the friends I know on social media and I shall continue to speak about this for the longest time. The act in itself is what I teach my son about..true humanity and perseverance.

Fast forward to Tuesday 14th June, 2016, I am happy to announce that the Home Office in the UK wrote back to the chap who set the ball rolling for all of this, Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, In their letter they apologised profusely and have reversed their refusal for David and Pamela's visas and he will now be able to travel to continue with any treatments.

Do let's all contribute to Dawid's and Prof Nick Ossei-Gerning's cause for getting a world class cardio centre in Ghana. Unfortunately the current Cardio Thoracic Centre at Korle Bu is undergoing refurbishment for a new cath lab and it has taken over a year to do, so what are cardiac patients meant to do in the meantime? Thank goodness for Dr. Enoch Anaglate whose cath lab was used for this procedure.

Kudos to you all.