The Edwards Every Heartbeat Matters, Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana Mission 2022

Introduction

The Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana Mission recently completed another successful mission in Ghana. While in Ghana, they perform Heart Surgery and support Pacing and Angiography. This year, they had two main aims. Firstly, to assist Mr. Baffour Gian perform the first heart operations at the new heart surgery program at the University of Ghana Medical Centre. They looked to perform daily surgery to those who would not otherwise be able to afford it. The second part of the mission is to go to Kumasi to place reconditioned pacemakers in patients and to perform angiography.

Below are the video accounts of those who were part of this great mission, as well as written summaries of each day.

Travel Day

We are back again after a two year delay due to COVID with our missions to Ghana to perform Heart Surgery and to support Pacing and Angiography.
This year, Supported by the Arrhythmia Alliance and Pace4life, we have two main aims. Firstly, we are assisting Mr. Baffour Gian to perform the first heart operations at the new heart surgery programme at the University of Ghana Medical Centre. We hope to perform daily surgery to those who would not otherwise be able to afford it.
The second part of the mission is to go to Kumasi to place reconditioned pacemakers in patients and to perform angiography (hopefully the first angioplasty in Kumasi).

Day One

Welcome to day one of the Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana Mission to the University of Ghana Medical Centre. The team started at 4:50am with Kim and Peter travelling to Kumasi to get the bypass circuits from Kath and then flying back. Meanwhile the rest of the team got to work in UGMC checking all the equipment in theatres. Helen performed TOES and Justin performed angiograms on our potential patients, and as a result we have identified seven patients for surgery this week with the team.
Altogether a very successful day and a great start to the mission.

Day Two

Welcome to day two of the Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana Mission to the University of Ghana Medical Centre and the Komfo Anoyke Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. Today the Pacing team performed the first ever change of a pacemaker for a lady whose pacemaker had run completely out of batteries She had a heart rate of only twenty-nine prior to the implantation. The implantation was the first reconditioned pacemaker placed in Kumasi. These pacemakers are reconditioned after donations from Pace4life and Project My Herat Your Heart, and only the best pacemakers are selected for reuse. The pacemaker for the lad ypreviously mentioned has a battery life of twelve years.
Also, today the heart surgery team performed the first heart operation at the University of Ghana Medical Centre. This was a fifty-three-year-old man who had a mitral valve replacement and we were delighted to see that he was extubated at 9:00pm that same evening. Well done to both teams for a great day’s work.

Day Three

Welcome to day three of the Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana Mission to the University of Ghana Medical Centre and the Komfo Anoyke Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.
Today in Kumasi, we performed another pacing box change for a patient whose pacemaker was on the verge of stopping. Justin helped Lambert and Yaw, the local cardiologists, perform two more pacemaker insertions with the reconditioned pacemakers donated from Pace4life and My Heart Your Yeart.
In Accra, the patient from yesterday continued to do well and another patient had aortic valve surgery for aortic regurgitation.

Day Four

Welcome to day four of our Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana mission to Accra and Kumasi. Today in Kumasi, we checked the pacemakers of all the patients in the region that we could. We found a patient whose pacing box was just about to fail. We urgently arranged for her to receive a pacing box change and a new pacing wire. I also assisted the plastic surgeons with a large desmoid tumour on the back of the chest. In accra, the team performed a mechanical mitral valve replacement in a lady with rheumatic heart disease, thus completing their third operation.

Day Five

Welcome to day five of our Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana mission to Accra and Kumasi. Today in Kumasi, we went to a small unit that has an agreement to help the Komfo Anokye Hospital perform angiograms in their imaging suite. However, they had not performed any since we were last in Kumasi in October 2019. We performed five and ended up getting through a good number of cases.
In Accra, the cardiac surgical team operated on the most unwell patient so far. A man with severe mitral regurgitation, severe tricuspid regurgitation, and two vessel disease with significant heart failure. He had an imminently life threatening disease so high risk surgery was his only chance.

Day Six

Welcome to day six of our Arrhythmia Alliance Hearts of Ghana Mission to Accra and Kumasi. This was our last day before flying back. The teams were reunited in Accra and we went together to the University of Ghana Medical Centre. The intention was to have a non operating day and to meet the management to make a plan for the future, but events overtooked us and we found some operating to do. We also found something interesting in the catheter laboratory!

Thank you all for watching.

Disclaimer

The information and views presented on CTSNet.org represent the views of the authors and contributors of the material and not of CTSNet. Please review our full disclaimer page here.