Appeal to help Ghana medical centre

Mansfield, UK -- A MANSFIELD scientist who built a modern hospital from scratch in Ghana is asking locals to help him keep the life-saving centre afloat. A.D. Asuman, who works as chief biomedical scientist at King's Mill Hospital, built the hospital after seeing at first-hand the overcrowded and under-funded healthcare on offer in the African state.

The King David Medical Centre opened its doors in Ghana's capital Accra last year and AD says it has already made a difference.

"I am very proud of the things we have already done," he told Chad this week. "But we need help to continue sending regular shipments of medication to the hospital and to recruit and train more staff."

AD was born and educated in Ghana until he moved to Britain to further his studies.

Corridors

In 1999 he returned to Ghana for a holiday and while in Accra visited the mother of an old colleague at one of the city's leading hospitals. Said A.D.: "I was shocked to see so many patients in the crowded corridors waiting to be seen by doctors.

"The wards were no better as they were equally crowded. "It was a shock to see just how tough and unrelenting life was within the health service of Ghana."

After A.D. returned to Mansfield he could not get the images of life in the hospital out of his mind and decided he had to help.

Despite juggling his job at King's Mill and a hectic family life, A.D. quickly began raising funds to build a completely new hospital with the help of doctors and friends.

Shipped

He then returned to Ghana to find a suitable plot of land and in 2003 the first container of equipment and furniture was shipped out from Mansfield.

Just two years later the medical centre was opened in a suburb of Accra and now includes two wards and eight members of staff.

"Since the opening of the hospital we have continued to develop services within the laboratory and introduced an ultrasound scan and an X-ray unit," AD told Chad:

"But costs continue to mount and we need more funding to maintain this progress. It is easy for us to forget how difficult life is in a Third World country.

"One-in-four children do not see their fifth birthday and 10 times as many children die before they are 28 days old than in the UK."

To help A.D. with the project contact him on Mansfield 451382 or by email at ad.asuman@ntlworld.com