Health education with creativity

Jesus , friend of little children “   But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”-Matthew 18:6 Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) defined children as persons under 18 years of age. Physical abuse of a child is defined by the World Health Organization as ‘that which results in actual or potential physical harm from an interaction or lack of interaction which is reasonably within the control of a parent or person in a position of responsibility, power or trust’.  The UNCRC places a duty on the state to promote the wellbeing of all the children within its jurisdiction and Ghana being a member of the United Nations (UN) is no exception. Unfortunately our children have been left to their own fate, when the voiceless cries, no one hears. Time and again we see these innocents...

CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19) COVID-19  is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The SARS-CoV-2 which causes Coronavirus Disease ( COVID-19) is a new strain of Coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans. It initially started in bats and later mutated to infect pangolins and then to humans. This virus was first identified in a group of people with pneumonia which was associated with seafood and live animal market in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The virus has since spread to other countries including South Korea, the United States, Italy, Australia, France, Egypt, Tanzania, Ghana, forcing the World Health Organization to declare it a pandemic. According to  http://www.worldometers.info , as at 18th March, 2020, about 198,770 cases had been recorded with 7,990 deaths and 82,779 recoveries, with fatality rate of about 3.5% but the case fatality rate differs from country to country. The virus can infect ...

The first twenty-four hours The first 24hours was excruciating and grueling. I had stayed home for a whole year after medical school and I didn’t remember a thing about pregnancies, but here I was doing a 24 hour duty at the obstetric and gynecological emergency. During the day time, my MO was around so he managed all the cases that came, all were cases of vomiting in pregnancy which I could have handled but as soon as it was 8pm and the MO left a lady with severe abdominal pain coupled with bleeding per vaginum was rushed in. She had had a seizure on her way to the hospital as well, in the taxi.The history given by the husband suggested that she was 7 months pregnant, had never been to ANC before and hence had no records. He also mumbled something about her being ‘epileptic whenever she was pregnant’. She was also not registered on the NHIS. Every detail of the history just dug my ‘confusion grave’ deeper. The woman had some serious conditions that could kill her unborn ...

Thoughts about a third world teaching hospital ‘Give people what they need: food, medicine, clean air, pure water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in, some hours of work, more hours of leisure. Don't ask who deserves it. Every human being deserves it.’-Zinn Medical school was bad enough. It ripped my academic genius image of myself off the wall of my mind. It stripped me naked of my self esteem leaving me with  the first three items on marslow’s theory of needs ,food ,shelter and security. Security which I barely had in a school where students frequently suffered  at the merciless hands of thieves and robbers. I barely survived. My daily prayer was to get 50% in every exam, pass the final exam and run away in one piece. I did get away in one piece but I did not have peace afterwards.  I started working in  a teaching hospital  few months after passing my final exam. On the first day I was sent to the emergency department . As soon as I...

The day the computer killed a baby. I was knocked down by a motorcycle that morning as I crossed the main road in front of the hospital to enter the premises. I hit my head on the asphalt road and lost consciousness briefly. When I came to, the motorcycle driver had fled and I was surrounded by some nurses who were also coming to work.They sent me to the emergency unit where the medical officer on duty took a look at me . I had sustained minor abrasions and cuts on my arms and face. I also had a small scalp  swelling and my vision  felt blurred, I attributed that to the cracks in my glasses .They had flown off and  hit the road  when the motorcycle sent me flying. In the end I had to do a CT scan since I had head trauma. I didn’t have the money to pay but since I was a house officer I thought the radiology department will help me out .They did not. They demanded cold hard cash. Hence I was unable to do the scan. I was on duty that morning for pediatric emerg...

Social media; A tool for democratizing health ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’- Benjamin Franklin. I was overcome with extreme gloom and great melancholy that fateful morning. A distraught mother rushed her 17yr old daughter into the ER (emergency  room) screaming for help.The girl was extremely pale and her breathing was labored. Her conjunctiva was so yellow that I picked up the jaundice from a mile away. She had been told by a neighbor that drinking a mixture of akpeteshie and camphor would cure her chicken pox in a matter of hours with no scarring from the rash. She had tried the magic potion and the results was the reason why she was in the ER Her liver was failing , she was hemolysing. We had to quickly intervene with a blood transfusion and some liver protective treatments to prevent her untimely demise. She survived but she had other problems; she could not pay her hospital bills. Her parents had no money for that.The management for ch...

POLARITY REVERSAL . I think my parents got it wrong because they were unlearned From childhood I was whipped and starved Just to teach me that right was good and must be preserved But I grew up to find out that I had been wronged For the the real world had its polarity reversed Right was wrong and wrong was right Good was evil and evil was good The innocent was guilty of innocence The criminal was innocent of his crimes The selfless were deemed foolish And the selfish were heroes Blinded by folly I chose the wrong side I wanted good and right to be the ones to preside Good always triumphs or so I thought From battle to battle I lost every fight Until I was on the verge of committing suicide And so I went on my knees and prayed God I have chosen wrongly , I said Nice guys finish last, I cried The response was straight forward and liberating ‘Yours is a different race my son’ E.Y.