Local couple raises funds for rural women’s hospital
Baby and mama are thriving after the care they received at Obaatan Pa Women's Hospital in Ghana.
Local husband and wife Drs. Amelia Laing and Cyril Ofori spent many years talking about the lack of available health care for women in Ghana.
“I had been practicing in the U.S. for many years,” Laing said, “and we would go to Ghana — this tiny little country on the west coast of Africa — and see many sad stories.”
One story Laing shared described how a 35-year-old woman died from a cesarean section. “Stillbirths were very high. Babies were dying in labor,” Laing said.
Laing spoke to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters at a May 17 fundraiser, many of whom have traveled to Ghana to volunteer at the hospital she and her husband founded to address this dearth of available and affordable health care for women.
“Our sons said to us, ‘You guys keep talking about this, so what are you going to do?’” Laing said. “So in June of 2011 we found a building.”
The building in the village of Accra, Ghana was extremely run down. “We took our sons’ inheritance and bought it,” Laing said with her ready smile. “We started on what we thought were going to be minor renovations.”
Thus began the task of renovating and equipping what is today a thriving, accredited, nonprofit hospital serving women in Accra and the surrounding communities: the Obaatan Pa Women’s Hospital.
“We occasionally have someone come from a teaching school, and they compliment us,” Laing said.
The hospital has delivered over 300 babies and has been able to add a pharmacy and lab on site. Laing described a recent birth that highlights the extreme poverty of many of the women they serve.
A local diabetic woman was being seen at the hospital erratically during her pregnancy as she did not come in regularly. “Finally one day she showed up with her water having broken,” Laing said. “The baby was in distress. She kept refusing a needed cesarean section.”
She was receiving a 90-percent discount on services. As staff discussed the situation with the woman, it was discovered that she had arrived for her delivery prepared to pay her 10 percent of a normal procedure and did not have the additional funds that might be required for any other services. Finally she was convinced not to worry about the money, and the baby was delivered.
“We were prepared. We did the proper monitoring and transferred the baby to a pediatric intensive care unit,” Laing said.
Without the hospital’s continued assistance, the baby would not have been able to receive the specialized care needed after delivery.
Laing explained that in Ghana it is necessary to provide some payment up front to receive treatment. “So with your donations,” she said, “we were able to give the dad money and put him in a vehicle and send him off with the baby. That was four weeks ago.”
The baby and mom are now both thriving.
David Noble, well-known Wooster philanthropist, has traveled to Accra more than once.
“We were most impressed with the hospital and the cleanliness and enthusiasm of the staff. There is a clear need for quality medical care for women in Accra, and the hospital provides this care for their patients,” Noble said. “We had a chance to visit with one couple and their small infant who had been born there, and these folks obviously did not have a high standard of living. I think they were living on the side of the road, yet they were able to get the care they needed. There is a lot of poverty in the community.”
Through the generosity of donations, the hospital has grown and now includes a staff of two full-time and four part-time doctors, 10 midwives/nurses, eight aides, and five support/administrative staff.
The dedicated team is able to provide much more to the local and surrounding areas than hospital services. They hold free well-woman screenings and outreach clinics throughout the region. “At our last clinic we diagnosed a woman with breast cancer,” Laing said.
The recent fundraiser was very successful, raising the funds needed for the hospital’s top needs: a neonatal resuscitator for the operating room at $7,500, a bilirubin blanket at $1,000 and a sequential compression device pump at $2,500.
“The rest of the money raised will support our care for those less able to pay for it,” Laing said.
The next need on the list is for a heme analyzer. The device, used to examine blood to determine cell counts, detect anemia and more, would be a huge boon to the hospital in numerous ways.
Combined with a chemistry analyzer, the two devices will “cover most of the labs we often need,” Laing said. “It will allow us to get quicker turn-around times to help with management of the patient and cost the patient a little less. Quicker turnarounds mean we can make diagnoses and start treatment that much sooner.”
The combined cost for the heme analyzer and chemistry analyzer is $10,000.
By 2014 the hospital was able to cover approximately 50 percent of their expenses. Currently that percentage has grown to 75 percent. “Our goal is to cover 100 percent of all operations and to fundraise only capital expenses,” Laing said.
With her drive, energy, commitment, enthusiasm, expansive heart and an ever-increasing base of dedicated supporters, that goal seems to be within reach.
Noble said, “They are clearly doing good work.”
A website is at www.servingwomenghana.org. Donations may be made via the website or with a check to Serving Women in Ghana, P.O. Box 127, Wooster, OH 44691.