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Prof Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse …First Ghanaian trained female Paediatric Surgoen opens up on impactful career
Prof Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse, delivering an address
Working as a Paediatric Surgeon was God’s plan for my life because l was told by my parents that at the age of four, l had indicated l would become a paediatric surgeon. It is so surprising that l knew nothing about it so l inferred that it was God who had directed my thoughts.”
These are the words of a genius and no wonder Prof Afua Adwo Jeckey Hesse became the first in all her fields of endeavour.
She is the first Ghanaian trained female Paediatric Surgeon, the first female to head the Department of Surgery at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and the first female to head the Paediatric Surgery Department at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
She is also the first female to work as the Director of Medical Affairs, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, and the first female to Act as the Chief Executive Officer at the hospital.
She is presently the President of Accra College of Medicine (ACM).
EDUCATION
Prof Afua Adwo Ajectey- Hesse who turns 70 this year was born in Kumasi to Prof Kwadwo Asare Jectey Nyarko and Mrs Agnes Jectey Nyarko of blessed memory.
Her father was a lecturer in Geography at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi while her mother taught at the Basic School in the same university.
When her father had the opportunity to study for his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in France, he took the family along because he wanted his children to get the necessary exposure to the outside world.
After the completion of the course, the family returned to Ghana. She enrolled at the Wesley Girls’ High School and sat for the Ordinary Level and later completed the Advanced Level certificate in 1969.
She entered the University of Ghana Medical School and graduated in Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) in 1976. She did her house job at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
While working as a Demonstrator in Anatomy at the Anatomy Department, University of Ghana Medical School, she wrote the primary examination and later gained admission to do her Postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Surgeons in the United Kingdom.
She later read Management Studies at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and the School of Management in London.
WORK ABROAD
She got married to Prof Adukwei I.F. Hesse in 1978 and when her husband went to Birmingham in the United Kingdom to study for his postgraduate programme in Physiology, she joined him with their two sons.
While lecturing in Birmingham as a Senior House Officer, within three years, she had sat for the Fellowship Examination at the Royal College of Surgeons in Birmingham.
Prof Jectey Hesse worked as a Clinical Fellow in Paediatric Surgeon. She again worked as Clinical Fellow in Clinical Surgery and Paediatric Surgery in the Bristol Royal Hospital.
In 1998, she and the husband returned to Ghana with their four children and applied to the University of Ghana to lecture. Her husband was employed in the Department of Medicine ( Internal Medicine), and taught Physiology also, while she worked in the Paediatric Surgery Department at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
Coincidentally, the Head of Paediatric Surgery Department who was her tutor, left unceremoniously and the mantle fell on her to head the department.
EXPERIENCE
She said it was an arduous task working continuously as a paediatric surgeon with no time to rest. Later, she had to recruit more doctors and nurses to assist her in the department and ensured that the staff were exposed to some of the best practices outside the country.
She said she had never wavered going through all the disciplines in medicine.
“In paediatric surgery, a child comes to the hospital with a problem and when you operate on the child or you correct the problem, the next day the child is ready to go and play football. In this situation, the anxious parents would like to find out whether the child should be allowed to play or not,” she said.
Prof Jectey Hesse explained that there was no regret working as a Paediatric Surgeon because she attached professionalism to her work and the relief given to parents and their sick children had provided her a lot of satisfaction. Additionally, working with her hands to see a little child get better was a wonderful activity which she took delight in.
Though on retirement, she is a part-time lecturer at the University of Ghana Medical School and still has so much to pass on to the younger generation as long as God gives her the strength to do what she loved doing best.
CHALLENGES
She explained that the Paediatric Surgery Department took care of newborn babies up to 13 years.
She said the challenges in the department included the clinical condition the patient was identified with, you could diagnose the condition and prescribe medication for the patient, but the parents could not purchase the medicine, and having completed a nice job, the post-operative management of the case could be problematic because the parents could not provide the needed items.
Prof Jectey Hesse intimated that there were occasions she had to use her money in support of needy children on admission in the hospital, and this situation had occasioned the establishment of a Special Fund in the department in support of needy children.
ACCRA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
When asked what motivated the family to establish the Accra College of Medicine, she said one of her sons had expressed concern that there were many students who had applied to the medical schools in Ghana with good grades but could not gain admission to the public medical schools because of the cut-off point, so he asked why couldn’t the family establish a school to cater for some of these students.
She said the family decided to manage the academic part of the university while other stakeholders provide the financial part. That was the vision to get stakeholders who would provide the needed funds for this laudable project, hence the coming into being of the Accra College of Medicine.
“By the grace of God, the school has graduated 28 medical doctors from three batches. The main thing is about their work ethics and high character,” she said.
GRATITUDE
According to her, some of her former students were grateful for the opportunity granted them to study medicine to become doctors. They said this would not have been possible without the establishment of ACM.
Prof Jectey Hesse is a Christian whose hobbies include, reading, cooking, baking, playing the piano at her leisure and she loves singing.
She loves Ghanaian foods and cooks perfectly well without the use of additives.
She urged Ghanaians to desist from telling lies and “do what they would like to do if nobody was watching them.”
By Raymond Kyekye
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Cervical Cancer alert: Avoid sex at early age
The Programmes Manager of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Mary Efua Commeh, has advised young girls to avoid sex at an early age.
This, she explained, will give the cervix the opportunity to mature before they become sexually active.
“You need to delay what we call the first sexual intercourse as much as possible to give the cervix the opportunity to mature before the person becomes sexually active,” she said.
Dr Commeh stated this in an interview with The Spectator in Accra on Tuesday as a part of the Cervical Cancer awareness month.
According to her, cervical cancer was the second leading female cancer in Ghana with a total of about 3,072 cases annually, and out of that, 1,815 deaths are recorded, representing more than 50 per cent.
She indicated that “If young girls are going to be sexually active, then you need to talk to your parents about being vaccinated.”
She explained that vaccinating young girls against human papillomavirus (HPV) has been found to be a very effective way of preventing cervical cancer.
“There are countries that started HPV vaccination years ago and they are not seeing any cervical cancers now because they would have eliminated most of the high-risk HPVs in their women. So if the high-risk HPV is not there, then obviously the results on cervical cancers are going to go down,” she added.
Dr Commmey said the HPV vaccination is recommended for young girls aged nine to 14 years, adding that it had been found to be highly effective, not just for cervical cancers but for other HPV-related cancers, such as anal cancers, cancers of the vagina, genital warts, amongst others.
She further elaborated that the idea is to put up a barrier before the HPV comes in and that once a young female encounters it, she is already protected.
She also mentioned that for cervical cancers, the main cause is called HPV infection, saying generally, all sexually active women acquire HPV at some point in their lives.
However, the Programmes Manager of NCDs at the GHS mentioned that the body has a way of clearing the HPV, explaining that it is a natural mechanism that goes on, unfortunately, there are a few women whose HPV persists.
Moreover, she noted that the numbers for Cervical Cancer tend to be much higher because at times, clients would wait, and try all sorts of medications before they finally report to the health facility saying “we actually lose some women before they get to the hospitals with over 75 per cent of the cases coming in its third and fourth stages.”
Dr Commey, therefore, called for public awareness while ensuring the availability of information for prevention and control.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
Entertainment
Maxi Sway teams up with Kweku Darlington on ‘Efie Bayie’
One of Ghana’s fastest-growing musicians, Maxi Sway known in private life as Alex Bonsu, has teamed up with music sensation, Kweku Darlington on ‘Efie Bayie’.
The song is off his new External Play (EP) dubbed, ‘Love and Life’ which is made up of five songs.
The EP written and performed by Maxi Sway, drew inspiration from real life situations.
According to Maxi Sway, ‘Efie Bayie’ was inspired by something unfortunate which happened in the life of his producer Ssnowbeatz.
He revealed that “some years back as it was almost close to the B.E.C.E examinations, Ssnowbeatz fell sick and had to write the exams at the hospital with a few Security Personnel around.”
“Ssnowbeatz told me it was a very difficult time because he was out of school for a while and had no time to even revise or prepare for the exams. He failed the papers because of his health and even didn’t go for the results,” he said.
According to him, after hearing the story of Ssnowbeatz, “It got me thinking and it inspired the song Efie Beyie.”
The video was directed and shot by Mista Morgan.
The songs on the EP include, Meganja, Efie Bayie, Wayo Love, Come Closer and Seke.
The songs making waves were produced by Klassic Beatz and Ssnowbeatz.
