The community where doctors use phone torches to perform surgeries in Ghana

It’s a matter of life and death when doctors meet in the theatre to perform surgeries on patients with different health conditions and yet doctors in Wechiau have been left with no choice but to use mobile phone torches to save lives.

In the small town which happens to be the capital of the Wa West district in the Upper West Region, theatre lamps have not been working for almost two years.

The Medical Superintendent of the Wa West District Hospital, Dr. Benjamin Ameyouri, explained to Joynews that patients with serious medical conditions have had to be operated on with mobile phone lights.

According to him, his medical team experienced a situation where a man with the medical condition – Gastric Perforation (a full-thickness injury of the wall of the stomach) - underwent surgery and two mobile phone lights had to be used to do the procedure.

“We needed to close the hole to avoid the contents from the stomach from leaking out into the entire cavity. And I had to use two [mobile phone] lights one on one side and another one, to be able to see clearly and continue with the procedure,” he told JoyNews.

Dr. Ameyouri said that the situation has affected their work greatly, particularly in the theatre and the entire facility as a whole.

“It is really affecting service because the lamp is the second eye for both the nurses and doctors when we are doing an operation,” Dr. Benjamin Ameyuori explained.



They, therefore, are appealing to external bodies to intervene to salvage the situation and improve health services at the Wa West District Hospital.

“We are appealing to external bodies who can come to our aid. This is a deprived community and we have sacrificed to be here to offer the best that we can for the people,” he added.

WA/DA