On Dreams

I ended up at Cape Canaveral because of a call from Aba Cato Andah.  

She had read a few of my articles and reached out. We were both pleasantly surprised to realise we were just a 30-minute flight from each other.

Before I could say jack, she had sent me a ticket, and I was on my way to Orlando to meet the Andahs.  

Around the dinner table, I got to know Dr and Mrs Andah, and we had so much to talk about. I think they realised I was a dreamer, so we spent the next morning at NASA.

I could not believe my eyes. I got on a bus, which started with the driver giving a history lesson on how important the place was.

Listing the many inventions that had arisen because of trips to the moon was really instructive, but no words can describe the ‘mammothness’ of those engineering marvels motionless on the same ground we stood, pointing to the heavens. 

Orange Artemis

At the time, the orange Artemis was on the tarmac, with a statement broadcasting that this huge thing would be going to the moon soon.

That day seemed so far away. 

The aspiration seemed impossible.

And here I was in Ghana watching on YouTube live as the capsule roared back to earth at mind-numbing speed.

It was incredible watching the weightless human beings make dreams come true. It was inspiring to see how teamwork made the dream work. 

An Artemis on its way to the moon

It was just amazing to see the power of science in action.

The Artemis I had seen on that tarmac that morning, 10 years ago, had finally done the job.  

Since then, quite a bit has changed in my life, and I have only God to thank for the blessings I have experienced.

The lessons have been many, and the journey fruitful.  

Recently, neurosurgery won big at the Accra Medical Centre awards night, validating a journey that had seemed impossible just four years ago.  

Neurosurgery achieved excellence in care at a private hospital, garnered customer mentions, and generated enough revenue to make business sense.

This is a field that was thought too fraught with risk to host in the private sector.

What came powerfully to mind during that historic awards ceremony was my 2016 Eisenhower Fellowship journey, when my project was to examine the possibility of doing neurosurgery in the private sector. I am living the project now.

I still have a long way to go, but so far, I am just grateful to the Lord God who makes all things possible.  

Primary health care

A lot has happened in health care recently, as Ghana takes a step in the right direction on dealing with primary health care.

I know that just as Artemis towered stationary on the ground a few years ago, in seemingly empty aspiration, and then went to the moon, Ghanaian health care will rise. 

I don’t know how it will, with all the challenges of under-resourcing, depleting human resources and overwhelming disease burden, but we will have to make it.  

There is too much at stake to just give up.

And I am sure we will find out soon, as a country, that our problem is not as much how to make primary health care work, as it is to improve secondary/tertiary healthcare expertise.  

It is really good that so much is being spent to improve access to bread-and-butter medicine, but what kills the Ghanaian unnecessarily is the unavailability of expertise for complex care.  

I have had a full circle experience recently, as a client whom I operated on years ago for a haemorrhagic stroke, defended a very dear relative of mine in court, and won.

I called him, effusive in my appreciation, and he kept turning my appreciation back on me. 

I was so thankful for the decision I made that afternoon years ago, to operate on a young man with a growing blood clot in his brain.

I am grateful that his wife, confronted with the frightening statistics I gave her on prognosis, still calmly said ‘Doctor, go ahead’.

This week, my relative has a smile on her face because of this lawyer’s brilliance.  

Dreams come true.