Today we continued our work at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. We spent the morning working with a variety of patients, some of whom were returning to follow up with either the Speech Language Pathologist at Korle Bu or for continued evaluation from our students. We genuinely enjoyed learning from the wide range of patients and their families. We were able to assess and then provide recommendations for children with language delays, autism spectrum disorder, other intellectual disabilities, and even an adult voice patient.
Throughout the morning, we worked on a rotation. At any given time about three quarters of us were working directly with the patients, while the other quarter was in the midst of experiencing a very special opportunity. Dr. Ampomah, the renowned cleft palate surgeon at Korle Bu, granted us permission to observe one of his cleft palate surgeries. We went in groups directly in the operating room, in scrubs, booties, head covers, masks and all. This was a learning experience that we would never have been so privileged to receive in the US and Dr. Ampomah was a wonderful and engaging teacher.
As each new group of students went in, Dr. Ampomah oriented us to what stage of the surgery he was at and what we were seeing anatomically. It was extraordinary to be able to look inside the mouth of a patient undergoing cleft palate surgery, watch each suture being threaded, and listen to Dr. Ampomah explaining his surgical strategies. As we observed the surgery and later discussed it amongst ourselves, some aspects that stood out included the suturing of the bifid uvula, the levator veli palatini, soft palate, hard palate, and both layers of mucosa.
It was increasingly evident to our whole group just how applicable and useful this experience would be in our work with any future patients with cleft palate and how it could contribute to our development of clinical experience and judgment. Additionally, we all felt that this would greatly contribute to our understanding of our patients from a more global perspective and we really saw the value of cooperating on a multidisciplinary team.
We returned to Korle Bu Hospital today and had a busy morning, doing assessments for about 15 clients. As usual, we worked with Albert but we were also joined today by Clement, a Ghanaian man trained as a speech language pathologist in the UK, and Karen Wylie, an Australian trained SLP who has been working in Ghana and around Africa for the past 10 years. Each day we gain confidence in our skills and collaborate efficiently and effectively as a group, and with other professionals. We have been working a lot on lanuage development with young children, but today we met some clients needing other types of services, including a child with cerebral palsy, a child with autism, a child who had lost his hearing due to meningitis, and an adult who had suffered a stroke. Each case was unique and while we have grown so much as clinicians in the last week, we also realize more and more how much there still is to learn.
Today, on African Union Day, we began our week at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Every Friday for approximately 6 years so far, Albert Osei Bagyina, the one and only speech therapist in Kumasi, travels on an overnight bus to get to Accra to conduct evaluations and follow-up visits with clients who come to Korle Bu. Albert makes the 6-hour trip back to Kumasi when his day is finished. This week, however, Albert joined us the whole time. It was great to continue collaborating with him.Today at the hospital, we saw a variety of different clients regarding speech, language, and hearing.
We went on a safari through Mole National Park and got to see many animals, including various types of antelope, baboons, warthogs, and most exciting and unexpected of all, a group of 8 elephants! We learned a lot about the park and the animals’ behavior and movements from the guides, but the most surprising thing we learned was that one of the guides was actually familiar with speech therapy and even with cleft lips, because a baby in his village had recently been born with a cleft. He said that no one had ever seen the baby, though. Our plan immediately became visiting the baby.
We headed to the northern region of Ghana today. After a short flight and a broken down bus, we made it safely to the Tamale Teaching Hospital and were fortunate enough to meet with Dr. Ken Sagoe, CEO of the hospital. He spoke to us about initiatives by different groups to address cleft palate and expressed the need for speech language pathologists and other rehabilitative professionals in Ghana. He also talked about how there needs to be a shift from groups that come to Ghana, repair clefts, and leave, to groups that train Ghanaian surgeons instead. This would be better for the post-surgical care of patients, and would allow more cleft patients to be served. Dr. Sagoe mentioned that at this point in time, 3 surigical missions were still coming to Tamale between June and December this year: June, The Graft Foundation (from within Ghana), July, Operation Smile and September, a team of Ghanaian doctors abroad in Britain and British doctors.
Today we visited our first Unit School. It is at the Effiduasi Methodist School where Belinda Bukari, with whom Dr. Crowley has been working for six years, teaches students with intellectual disabilities and autism. Through her hard work in establishing educational services for children with intellectual disabilities in Ghana, Belinda has helped to reduce the social stigma against people with disabilities. Dr. Crowley has supported this effort by providing classroom supplies and professional development sessions. We were all excited to see the school grounds for the first time, which we had seen before only in pictures and videos.
