Story: Benjamin Makafui Attipoe, Apeguso, Eastern Region
A forty-four (44) year old female graduate teacher and a mother of four (4) children of the Apeguso Presbyterian Junior High School (JHS) in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region has appealed to well-meaning individuals and institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as well as the entire general public to urgently assist her to go under the knife to remove a brain tumour at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) Limited in Accra at the cost of Eighty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHS 80,000.00).
The patient, Ms. Pearl Amenu, wept uncontrollably when our news team caught up with her and the family over the weekend at Apeguso, saying, ‘I don’t want to die, leaving these young children to their fate’.
The spokesperson and husband of Pearl, Mr. Forster Ananga, told our news team that a couple of weeks ago, the wife had gone through an earlier procedure at the UGMC after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
‘Unfortunately, a few weeks after the surgery, Pearl started having severe headaches accompanied by seizures’, Mr. Ananga lamented.
According to Forster, who is also a teacher by profession, each time these seizures occurred, Pearl had to be admitted to the hospital until the doctors advised her recently to undergo a second surgery to resolve the problem permanently.
He indicated that apart from the regular admission cost and transportation expenses, Pearl’s medications are also expensive, a development that has resulted in a financial burden on the entire family. ‘The family is indebted to many people because we have exhausted our many years of savings and continue to borrow money to deal with my wife’s health condition’, Mr. Annaga sadly intimated.
Mr. Ananga used the opportunity to appeal to all Ghanaians as well as benevolent individuals and institutions within and outside the country to urgently assist them in raising the needed GHS 80,000 for such surgery. He said that the family could not afford the high cost of the surgical procedure, stating that a lot of their resources had already gone down the drain.
Forster noted that the wife’s health condition has traumatized him as a husband and their four (4) children and began to affect the children’s educational careers. According to him, their last child and daughter, Bernaida Sedinam Ananga (Nursery 2 Pupil), who would turn four (4) on Thursday, 28th September 2023, weeps anytime she goes to school.
The eldest child, Dennis Senam Ananga, 14, is a Junior High School (JHS) form three pupil. He told our news team in an interview that their only hope for now is in Christ, explaining that their mother’s situation has not only created instability in their educational and social lives but also in their religious activities. ‘Our only hope is God; our fervent prayer is God; our trust is in God’, Dennis intimated, hoping that their voices and plea would touch someone somewhere to save their mother and family from what he described as destruction.
A medical report issued on Ms. Pearl Amenu by the Neurosurgery Department of the UGMC and dated 12th June 2023 explained that Pearl had an excision biopsy done on her about eight (8) weeks ago, which, according to the report, was compatible with features of Oligodendroglioma, adding that she was advised to do de-bulking of the brain tumour for which reason she has been looking for funds.
The medical report, signed by one Dr. Djan-Baah for Dr. Adams, also disclosed that Pearl is currently on oral levetiracetam 1g twice daily, oral Dexamethasone, oral omeprazole 20mg daily and has been scheduled for regular Out Patients’ Department (OPD) review by the Neurosurgery team.
Mr. Foster Ananga disclosed that all sympathizers could direct further inquiry or support through his contact number, +233 244948713. The public could also contact Ms. Julian Timinka Ananga, sister to Mr. Forster Ananga, at the Births and Deaths Registry, Prampram Office at +233 242953875.
He used the opportunity to appeal to all Ghanaians, including the clergy, to remember them in their prayers. He mentioned that the other kids, Oswin Seyram Ananga, 12, a JHS form 1 pupil, as well as Edmund Delanyo Ananga, 7, and a P3 pupil, are all being given some psycho-social support to enable them to go through these trying moments.
