Maker’s House Chapel donates to Korle Bu, 37 dialysis units

Maker’s House (TMH) Chapel International, has donated GH¢150,000 to two hospitals in Accra to support their renal dialysis units.

The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) received GH¢100,000, while the 37 Military Hospital received GH¢50,000.

The wife of the lead Pastor of TMH, Yaa Achiaa Boadi Nyamekye, said the donation was part of the church’s duty to help and support the community in which it operated.

“I have personally heard the cries of some of the patients’ families, and a few people come up to me to tell me how they are struggling to pay the dialysis fees,” she said.

Mrs Nyamekye pledged that the church would continue to offer support every month to assist those who could not pay for their sessions.

Situation

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KBTH, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, said there were about 700 to 1,000 patients who were known to be on chronic renal dialysis in the country who needed urgent support.

He said families were faced with the difficult situation of choosing between letting their loved ones die or spending their entire family fortune trying to keep them alive.

“It is a choice that we do not have to put people through.

When you have a diagnosis of chronic renal failure and you need to be on dialysis, it can actually be catastrophic for the family in terms of income because it is a really big drain on the family’s resources,” the CEO said.

Temporary measure

Dr Ampomah further said that dialysis was a temporary measure for patients because they needed renal transplants for them to live relatively normal lives and not hooked up to a machine two to three times a week.

He said the dialysis machine cleaned a patient’s blood but could not do everything that the kidney was created to do.

“Apart from filtering the blood, the kidney also produces some hormones and helps in the way you process calcium.

So the number of things that the kidney does cannot be substituted for by a machine, that is why they need other medication,” the CEO added.

Cost of dialysis

For his part, the Head of the Renal Unit of the 37 Military Hospital, Dr Luis Serebour, said patients were finding it difficult to make payment for the dialysis treatment due to the cost involved.

He, therefore, assured the church that part of the money donated would assist them in paying for the fees.

“Ideally, people should be dialysing three times a week, but the cost of the treatment has made it impossible, so some patients have reduced the number of times they come in for the treatment,” Dr Serebour added.