Cuban Doctors Save Mariama

MARIAMA slowly half-opened her eyes. She had been sleeping off the effects of the anaesthetic for 45 minutes. She felt a strange sensation of relief. Her body felt different. At that first sign, surgeons responsible for eliminating the affliction that that had overwhelmed her for many years observed her closely. She gave a smile, her first one, to the expectant faces of those surrounding her. Everyone felt exceedingly happy. The operation had been a success.


On July 21, a mobile clinic staffed by a Cuban medical team collaborating in the Republic of Ghana discovered Mariama Issahaku in Tanina, a small rural village of mud houses with earthen floors similar to others in the area. The village’s inhabitants are mainly poor Moslems.

For some years, a breast deformity due to hormonal problems had weakened the teenager, marginalizing her from the world.

On discovering Mariama, the doctors decided that they urgently needed to find the necessary funding and alert the relevant organizations in order to operate on both totally deformed breasts. Without timely intervention her life was at risk. When found, the youngster was unable to move at all or carry out the traditional work role of African women in Tanina, situated in the north western sub-district of Ponyentanga, 1,100 kilometers from Accra, Ghana’s capital.

But Mariama’s sad story, published in the August 5 edition of Granma International, is now a thing of the past.

"After we found her we didn’t waste one minute", explained surgeon Elvis Pardo Olivares, the doctor who performed the operation together with Ghanaian surgeon Dr. Edward Gyader and a multidisciplinary team from both countries.

"We visited her again, although she wasn’t certain what it was all about as she is also completely deaf. "Simultaneously, we initiated the paperwork for the case with the relevant health and security agencies," and all this hard work paid off. The social services department responsible for health in the Wa region, the Ponyentanga district and assembly, and the Wa hospital management board accumulated sufficient funding to carry out the operation. In Ghana, people must pay for health care. The poorest people never seek hospital treatment; they opt for traditional treatments that, in many cases, can cost lives.

After overcoming the first obstacle and achieving the necessary grants, they visited Mariama twice more-the last time to take her to hospital. She was suffering from yet another fierce bout of malaria. "We had to give her various blood transfusions as her blood count was very low and her health had deteriorated which also meant that the operation was postponed several times."

At last the day that everyone was waiting for arrived. The team responsible for the case had previously met to work out all the details, given the precarious condition of the hospital facilities and especially that of the patient.

At 11.05am on August 14 everyone was tense but ready: one more life in their hands along with the prestige of the Cuban medical mission.

The operation took place in a spacious well-lit theater renovated with blue tiles and large new windows. Everybody looked at each other and nodded. The patient was completely anesthetized. Everything was ready.

They began with the right breast, carrying out a mastectomy because of ulcerations. "One and a half hours later the first part of the operation ended," commented Dr. Elvis Pardo. "Everything had gone as normal, we took a few minutes rest and then began on the second one". The right breast had weighed 11 kilograms.

The only sound heard was of doctors calling for instruments. Vital life signs were normal. Another hour and a half later Mariama was relieved of more weight. Her left breast weighed 10 kilograms.

Cases such as this are not unknown in medical literature and Cuban specialists from the Integral Health Program in Haiti have successfully carried out a similar operation.

The young Ghanaian girl’s recovery has been satisfactory to date. The happy smile has not left her face. Her elderly mother Kutum, brimming over with happiness, never imagined that this miracle could happen. Even her neighbors have visited her.

Cuban medical cooperation in Ghana began in 1984 when seven doctors were sent to the northwestern Wa region. Eighteen years later, there are now 143 health professionals from various specialties receiving the same affection, love and respect from all those who have benefited from Cuba’s Integral Health Program in Third World nations.

As distinct from national doctors, those from Cuba give their humanitarian aid in the most remote areas and in the hardest conditions.

Mariama is smiling now. Perhaps this Ghanaian girl will never hear or say her own name. But luckily the prophecies of 100-year-old Alhaj Mumuni, the oldest man in Tanina, have come true...now Mariama doesn’t have to hide away in corners, avoiding the curious. The white-coated herbalists he saw in a dream arrived to make her happy.