“I was always determined to aim high and reach high and to be one of the best, and I know I am not the best but I want to be one of the best,” Professor Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, an American-trained orthopaedic surgeon, says.
Born in Kumasi in 1950, Prof Oheneba Boachie-Adjei was raised by his mother and grandmother in a not too wealthy family.
Growing up, Prof Boachie-Adjei, however, suffered from a serious gastric ailment at age eight that almost killed him. It was during those moments that his grandmother approached a Ghanaian paediatrician trained in the UK who helped take care of him and after he got well, the paediatrician became his idol.
“I always wanted to be like him so I grew up with the mindset of becoming a healer,” he notes.
After his high school education in Kumasi, Prof Boachie-Adjei went to the US to have his college and university education.
With a degree in medicine in 1980 from the Colombia University, Prof Boachie-Adjei stayed in the US to build his career.
“I knew I wanted to be a surgeon but I did not know what type of surgeon I wanted to be, so I doubled in neuron surgery, orthopaedic, urology and then narrowed it down to orthopaedics and general surgery, and finally orthopaedics,” he states.
While on a fellowships programme, Prof Boachie-Adjei had the opportunity to study the spine which during the time was one of the areas that was understudied in orthopaedic.
That research led to the publishing of the book titled ‘Atlas of Spinal Disease’ in 1989.
After over two decades of successful medical practice in the US and around the world, Prof Boachie-Adjei decided to come back home and support the health sector with his expertise in orthopaedic surgery.
“I went to the US to learn medicine, become a well-trained doctor with the ultimate goal of coming back although it took forty years before I finally returned to Ghana I started the process after 20 years,” he adds.
In 1998, he started an organisation, ‘Foundation of Orthopaedics and Complex Spine (F.O.C.O.S)’ in New York aimed at giving orthopaedic care to those who needed it in Ghana.
“I got some friends, colleagues and patients to come to my help and establish the organisation in New York and we started raising funds,” he states.
With the support of more than 250 international volunteers, Prof Boachie-Adjei and FOCOS would go on to sponsor four medical mission trips each year with his colleague doctors to conduct free orthopaedic surgeries and care using the local government hospitals in Ghana till 2008.
The team of FOCOS volunteers completed hundreds of free complex spine surgeries on adult and paediatric patients from Ghana and all over the world within the period of the visits.
“The spectrum of conditions and diseases that I saw in New York is nothing compared to what I am seeing here. There, it was mild to moderate, here, it was most severe to extremely severe and very, very dangerous to treat,” Prof Boachie-Adjei describes.
During this time, his foundation had raised enough money to buy a parcel of land to put up a permanent hospital for orthopaedic care and complex spine treatment in Ghana named after the foundation. He retired and then moved back to Ghana in 2012 to serve his country.
“To me, the dream has become real, what I started 40 years ago and made preparation for 20 years ago is now real,” he says.
Located in Ghana, West Africa, the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital is one of the only full-service specialty facilities specialising in orthopaedic care and treatment in Africa.
FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital
The FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital, opened in April 2012 at Pantang in Accra, is an ultra-modern 50-bed specialty facility providing services to adult and pediatric patients in need of orthopaedic care.
Specialising in complex spine and joint replacement surgeries, the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital is fully accredited to operate both inpatient and outpatient departments.
A local staff of more than 175 medical and administrative professionals are supported by an international team of more than 250 volunteers.
Volunteers, mostly surgeons, nurses and physical therapists, provide in-service training and educational services to staff and other local professionals.
In July 2014, the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital became an official international affiliate of the renowned Hospital For Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City.
Prof Boachie-Adjei says the ultimate goal is to offer incentives to Ghanaian and foreign medical specialists to train and remain in Ghana.
“The goal is to train and develop local professionals to sustain the FOCOS mission for years to come,” Prof Boachie-Adjei mentions.
He adds that the vision of FOCOS is to develop a sustainable infrastructure to enable state-of-the-art orthopaedic care, education, research and training.
The long-term goal of the hospital is to construct the FOCOS Institute – a world-class facility to provide orthopaedic education and practical experience for physicians, surgeons, medical students and allied health professionals,” he says.
Care for Patient
To date, the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital has treated more than 40,000 adults and paediatric patients. This includes more than 1,500 successful complex spine and joint procedures.
In 2015, volunteers and staff at the FOCOS Hospital treated more than 4,000 patients and completed just over 300 life-changing surgeries.
Patients at the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital hail from more than 25 countries throughout the world. While the majority of the patients treated hail from Ghana and Ethiopia, other patients come from Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and other parts of Africa.
In 2015, FOCOS completed 445 spine and joint replacement surgeries and treated over 6,300 patients.
Prof Boachie-Adjei, highlighting the importance of such a facility in the country, says orthopaedic conditions are the fourth cause of deaths worldwide when compared with cardiovascular, cancer and mental illnesses.
Spinal Deformities
He says one of the complex spinal deformities is scoliosis, which is the sideways (lateral) curving of the spine.
This deformity affects one in every 10 persons will have scoliosis while, two to three persons in every 1000 persons will need active treatment for a progressive condition.
“In one out of every 1,000 cases, surgery must be needed,” Prof Boachie-Adjei points out. He says eight percent of scoliosis cases are idiopathic (cause unknown), however, scoliosis runs in families and affects more girls than boys.
Kyphosis (round back) may also occur in developing adolescents and may need to be treated with surgery.
Prof Boachie-Adjei says although surgical treatments for complex spinal deformities are expensive, the hospital has devised a payment system that helps patients finance their cost of treatment per their financial background.
He said the ultimate goal of FOCOS is to provide quality care to patients, thus, it works to ensure patients get the best of care at a subsidised cost.
“What we want people to know is that you can have the same quality orthopaedic surgery in the US, here in Ghana,” he adds.
Call for Action
Prof Boachie-Adjei adds that the hospital which runs on mainly charity support for patients is open for assistant in their activities, especially funds for patient care.
“We have been getting support from government and some companies in Ghana but we need more of such support as a huge part of our support is coming from outside,” he appeals.
Prof Boachie-Adjei suggests screening children, especially of symptoms of scoliosis or kyphosis, calling for immediate professional diagnosis to be sought if symptoms are found.
He says spinal curvature is best dealt with when a young person’s body is still growing and can respond to treatment such as body brace.
“You, your physician and or your school screening programme can perform a 30 second annual screening for scoliosis and kyphosis during the bone growing years can make a difference between a preventable condition and a disability in adult years,” he emphasizes.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri