Kokrokoo Foundation donates incubator to Nsawam Hospital
A $10,000 infant incubator has been installed at the Nsawam Government Hospital in the Eastern Region to help premature babies survive and thrive.
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The enclosed apparatus was installed by the Kokrokoo Charities Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), under its Project 100 incubators programme.
Under the project, the Founder of Kokrokoo Charities Foundation, Mr Kwami Sefa Kayi, who is also the host of the Kokrokoo morning show on Peace FM, an Accra-based radio station, plans to donate 100 incubators to hospitals all over the country to promote the health of newly born babies.
The foundation raises funds through individual support and that of corporate organisations, which it uses to purchase the incubators.
More incubators
Speaking before the handover of the incubator, the Programmes Manager of Kokrokoo Charities Foundation, Mr Dennis Adutwum, said it was the fourth to be installed since the establishment of the foundation two years ago.
The first three incubators, he said, were presented to the Police Hospital and the La General Hospital in Accra and the Prestea Government Hospital in the Western Region.
He said 10 additional incubators had been procured to be donated to other hospitals, including the Tamale Hospital in the Northern Region.
Mr Adutwum announced that the foundation would hold a climaxing fundraising event on June 20, 2017, which would also coincide with the birthday of the founder of the foundation, to mobilise more funds to purchase the rest of the incubators earmarked under the project.
The distribution of the incubators, he stated, was based on a survey carried out by the Ministry of Health, assessing the needs of the various hospitals in the country.
Premature babies
Two personalities at the Nsawam Government Hospital, the Medical Superintendent, Dr Kofi Ablorh, and the Head of Nursing, Ms Stella Lena Woana, received the incubator on behalf of the hospital.
Dr Ablorh said approximately, 6,000 babies were delivered in the hospital annually and that between January and March this year, 1,400 deliveries had been recorded, 39 of which were premature babies, of whom six had died.
He said the percentage of child deaths could be reduced if the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the hospital was well-equipped.
Currently, he said, the hospital had only one incubator which was donated by an NGO in 2015, hence it usually resorted to the Kangaroo Mother Care procedure to care for premature babies.
Kangaroo Mother Care is a method of care practised on a preterm infant, where the infant is nestled in the mother’s, father’s or substitutes care giver’s chest ensuring skin-to-skin contact and covered with a piece of cloth.
Dr Ablorh explained that the location of the hospital made it easy for residents from the Akwapim South and East Akim districts and the Greater Accra Region to access health care there.
He said the hospital needed 10 incubators to operate efficiently and save the lives of premature babies born at the facility, and appealed to individuals and organisations to assist it to procure more incubators as the government could not carry the burden alone.
