UMB donates to Burns Centre
The Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), in collaboration with Joy FM, has donated medical items worth GH¢56,049 to the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) to aid in the treatment of the victims of the June 3, 2015 twin disaster.
Advertisement
The items include cotton wool, gauze roll, crepe bandage, silver sulphadiazine, paraffin oil, disposable gloves, normal saline, zinc oxide plaster, vaseline gauze and drugs of different varieties.
Many people who had gone to seek shelter from the rains at the GOIL Filling Station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra lost their lives, while others suffered severe burns when the fuel station exploded.
About 160 people died, while properties running into millions of cedis were destroyed.
Sixteen people who were severely burnt were admitted to the Burns Centre of KBTH. One died, 13 were discharged but they visit the hospital periodically for medical treatment and two are still on admission.
The Managing Director of the UMB, Mr John Awuah, said his outfit, in collaboration with Joy FM, was contributing their quota to enable the centre to meet the medical needs of the victims of the disaster.
“In times like this, it is most important that we demonstrate our commitment and the Universal Merchant Bank and Joy FM deemed it fit to do just that,” he said.
The Senior Resident at the Burns Unit of Korle Bu, Dr Kwesi Nsaful, received the items and expressed gratitude to Universal Merchant Bank and Joy FM for the assistance.
He said many persons were unable to meet the cost of treatment at the centre and lauded the massive response by the various institutions to the needs of the victims since the disaster.
He said the donation was timely because the hospital needed support in treating the patients who were still on admission and those who visited periodically for treatment.
“We are at the acute stage where we are trying to heal raw wounds, but in the long term they can develop a hardening of their skin called contractures, which makes it very difficult for them to move certain parts of the their bodies,” he noted.
“Therefore, they may have to undergo further surgery to deal with those contractures,” he added.
He said some unfortunate patients were likely to develop keloids and skin cancers within the wounds if they did not continue with their treatment after being discharged.