Twenty-eight young Ghanaian children suffering from congenital heart diseases have undergone life-saving paediatric cardiac procedures at the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC).
The Twenty-eight received the life-saving treatment thanks to a four-day humanitarian mission led by a four-member paediatric cardiac team from Qatar Charity in collaboration with NCTC’s paediatric cardiac specialists.
According to a Facebook post by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the mission marked the team’s fifth visit to Ghana, but their first ever hosted directly at Korle Bu.
The post disclosed that the interventions were carried out using advanced, minimally invasive cardiac catheterisation techniques at the Centre’s newly commissioned bi-plane cardiac catheterisation laboratory.
A Facebook post by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on September 1 stated, “NCTC and Qatar Charity Partner to Deliver Life-saving Paediatric Cardiac Catheterisation and Interventions.
A four-member paediatric cardiac team from Qatar Charity has partnered the NCTC paediatric cardiac team to perform life-saving paediatric cardiac procedures for 28 children suffering from congenital heart diseases at the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC) of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).
The four-day humanitarian mission marked the team’s fifth visit to Ghana, but their first-ever mission hosted directly at KBTH.
The interventions utilised advanced, minimally invasive cardiac catheterisation techniques at the Centre’s newly commissioned bi-plane cardiac catheterisation laboratory.
The medical team comprised lead Paediatric Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Iyad Al-Ammouri; Senior Paediatric Cardiac Anaesthesiologist, Dr Hasan Ismail Mahmoud Amar; Catheterisation Lab Technologist, Mr. Mohammad Faisal Hijazi Abu Rabie; Cathlab Technology Assistant, Mr. Maysarah (M.N) Nafi’ Mosleh; and Senior Cathlab Technician, Mr. Kulindwa W. Kasubi, from Tanzania.
The team worked alongside NCTC’s clinical team, which was led by Paediatric Cardiologists, Prof. Nana-Akyaa Yao and Dr Della Adzosii, and Specialist Cathlab Anaesthesiologist, Dr Sika Edinam Lumor. The joint team successfully treated patients ranging from five-month-old infants to a 23-year-old medical student.
The interventions primarily involved repairing abnormal cardiac connections and defects (hole-in-heart), as well as executing balloon dilations for constrained valves and blood vessels.
Most of these diseases, in their manifestation, have a negative impact on the children who suffer the condition. Typical manifestations are severe breathing difficulties, recurrent chest infections, poor feeding, failure to thrive, or heart failure if left unaddressed.
Dr Al-Ammouri praised the smooth collaboration and patient selection process at the Centre, expressing optimism for future missions.
“We are hoping that we will continue to come every year and help the children of Ghana with these specially selected cases, and also support the team at Korle Bu with the cases they perform in between mission visits”.
Prof. Yao stated that performing the specialised catheterisations at the newly upgraded lab represents a historic step forward for healthcare in Ghana. She commended Qatar Charity for providing all the specialised treatments at no cost to the beneficiary families.
The Director of the NCTC, Dr Kow Entsua-Mensah, emphasised that the visit prioritised local capacity building to ensure sustainable, long-term care through hands-on training and knowledge exchange with local doctors, nurses, radiographers, and anaesthetists.
“One of the main aims of doing this is capacity-building and enhancing our practice. It is very important for us to grow our practice, and having the team here has been helpful in opening new frontiers for us,” he noted.
Moving forward, both institutions aim to build on the annual partnership to expand access to vital cardiovascular care while enabling local clinicians to independently manage complex pediatric procedures in between visits.
See the post below:
@ghnow_ Ghana represented at the 2026 Yosakoi Festival in Kochi, Japan 🇯🇵 The Yosakoi Festival is one of Japan's 10 largest festivals. It has been held for more than 60 years as a summer pastime for people in Kochi. #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ “Buy a bulletproof car if you have money, it will somersault several times and you’ll wake up solid.” – Man after crashing his Mercedes-Benz without sustaining any injuries at Legon. #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
