Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital swamp with stroke cases records about 500% increase a year

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital is overwhelmed with stroke cases admitting over one thousand stroke patients every year.

The figure according to Dr. Fred Stephen Sarfo, Consultant Neurologist is in contrast to some 200 cases recorded 40 years ago.

A time-bound and minimally damaged treatment has been launched at the hospital to improve stroke treatment.

A decreased blood flow stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is blocked or reduced by a blood clot.

Stroke has been noted as a top rampant medical condition being recorded in the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi.

Treatment remains a challenge while experts explore contemporary treatment methods to manage the disease.

The drugs and medication previously used in stroke treatment did not dissolve blood clots, hence, leaving patients with a permanent disability.

Active stroke thrombolysis will administer clot-busting drugs and medication to dissolve blood clots in the brain during an acute ischemic stroke.

Thrombolysis services will incorporate thrombolysis into routine stroke care at Komfo Anokye (KATH).

At the launch of the implementation of thrombolysis services, Consultant Neurologist at the referral center, Dr. Fred Stephen Sarfo said the new method is revolutionary.

“In the past when one had a stroke, what we used to do was to admit the person and start aspiring but those drugs in the past dissolve the clots that have been formed and so the person will have a permanent disability. But with this intervention the cloth which is the problem is the one you are dissolving from the brain and the person will be healed and the person will be cured. So this new medication is evolutional and it is novel and innovative and it can really improve outcomes for our patients. I think herbal practitioners make all sorts of claims in the media and nobody fact checks their claims. Maybe I will task the media to fact check them when the herbalist says I have a cure for stroke and they give treatment to the patient. The media should follow up to check if their claims are true or not’’ Dr. Fred Stephen Sarfo asked.

Chief Executive of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Prof. Otchere Addai-Mensah says the hospital’s new strategy is to optimize the delivery of tertiary healthcare.

“ In lined with the hospital’s new strategy to optimize the delivery of tertiary health care through innovation and research. Management has supported the KATH multi-disciplinary stroke thrombolysis scheme to commence the delivery of this special service to save stroke patients brought in timely to this hospital to avoid suffering worse forms of impact of the disease’’ he pleaded.

Prof. Addai Mensah therefore, called on peripheral hospitals and the general public to act with speed to get in stroke patients quickly admitted to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for this service.

“Considering the higher risk of the disease and its associated mobility and mortality the formation of the team and the commencing of the thrombolysis services at this hospital will constitute a significant milestone towards reducing the impact of stroke and enhancing the wellbeing of stroke patients in recovery in the country’’ he emphasized.