Man with stiffened hand for years resorts to ice-block

Life, for a 25-year-old man at Woamoase in the Ashanti Region, has been reduced to almost hopelessness due to ill-health.

Collins Okyere has been battling a strange disease, which has stiffened his arms and feet and gives him excruciating pain for the past six years.

His search for cure has seen him try anything including dipping his hands into iced water for relief.

Collins says his ordeal begun in 2010 when he completed the Basic Education Certificate Examination.

“I woke up one morning with a stiffened hand and feet and this continued for some time. So one day I applied ice- water to the pain and got relief for as long as I kept it there. I prepare iced water to dip hands and feet in it.”
Collins says the ailment recurred when he was in Senior High School.

He managed to write his final exam and gained admission into University of Cape coast.

"After one and half month in the university the disease returned, so I came home thinking I would return in two weeks time but spent the semester in the house. I brought a letter but I was told to buy another form in order to continue schooling.”

Initially Collins was admitted to the Adventist Hospital and Salvation Army Health Centre at Wiamoase.

He says on each occasion he was discharged without diagnosis.

Pale-looking, he has in front of him a bucket half-filled with ice.