Former Germany international Gerald Asamoah has arrived in Accra with 55 medical professionals from Germany to provide free heart surgery for children at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
The Ghana-born former footballer and the medical delegation landed at Kotoka International Airport on Saturday, November 7, beginning a week-long “Gemeinsam fur Ghana” (“Together for Ghana”) mission organised by the Gerald Asamoah Foundation for Children with Heart Disease.
The team includes specialist surgeons, paediatric cardiac anaesthesiologists and nurses. Working with the German charity kinderherzen e.V. and Korle Bu’s National Cardiothoracic Centre, they will carry out free open-heart operations and minimally invasive catheterisation procedures.
The programme is aimed at children with congenital heart defects, often described as “hole-in-the-heart” conditions, whose families are unable to meet the cost of complex cardiac treatment.
Children are being selected through clinical screening and referrals at the National Cardiothoracic Centre. Priority is being given to infants and children from low-income households who need surgery but cannot afford it.
As well as providing the operations, the delegation has brought surgical consumables, emergency medication and equipment for the hospital.
The German specialists are working alongside Ghanaian surgical teams at Korle Bu. The hospital has recently benefited from a new cardiac catheterisation laboratory commissioned by the government, as well as expanded charitable specialist surgery programmes intended to reduce waiting times for life-saving treatment.
Paediatric cardiac anaesthesiologist Kristina Ehleben, who is part of the visiting team, said the initiative was designed to have an impact beyond the children treated during the mission.
Speaking to Asaase Radio on Sunday, November 8, she said the programme would focus on building the skills of Ghanaian medical staff through collaboration with the visiting experts.
“The initiative goes beyond performing surgeries, with plans to strengthen local expertise through training, orientation and knowledge-sharing with Ghanaian doctors,” Ehleben said.
Also on Sunday, Asamoah and members of the delegation visited the German International School Accra (GISA). The school provides educational scholarships to children who have had heart surgery through the foundation, while its pupils are helping to cater for the medical team during its stay.
Asamoah was born in Mampong in Ghana’s Ashanti Region in 1978 and moved to Germany at the age of 12. He won 43 caps for Germany, including appearances at the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.
He established the Gerald Asamoah Foundation for Children with Heart Disease in 2007, after surviving a career-threatening congenital heart condition that was diagnosed when he was 19.
