12th Ghana Mission: 120+ Surgeries in Two Weeks

In May 2025, a group of nineteen dedicated volunteers from Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois — including 3 Surgeons, 3 Internal Medicine physicians, 1 Anesthesiologist, 2 CRNA's, 2 Surgical PA, 4 nurses, 3 family nurse practitioners and a high school teacher/ task manager, — joined our 12th mission to Ghana. We brought medicine, surgical supplies and medical supplies, dispensing them freely to patients throughout our stay. The surgeons performed over 120+ free surgeries.

We worked again at Kwahu Government Hospital in Atibie, where our dedicated surgical team performed more than 120 + surgeries in two weeks. The general and trauma surgeons handled skin grafts, thyroidectomies, lipoma removals, and hernia repairs, aided by surgical equipment and instruments brought to Ghana by our team members and the assistance of United Airlines — equipment later donated to the hospital.

Our medical team ran outreach in eight villages — Oboyan, Bukuruwa, Mangoase, Kwaku Safo, and Hweehwee among them — caring for a variety of illnesses, screening adults for diabetes and hypertension, providing prophylactic treatments for children, and treating wounds and skin infections.

We were aided from the start by Salormey Volunteers Group, our partners in Ghana from the very beginning. We thank them — and every person who donated money, time, and supplies to this effort.

Medicine and supplies for everyone we met

We brought medicine and medical supplies with us, dispensing them freely to patients throughout our stay. Nothing was held back for billing or paperwork; the goal was simply to treat people who would otherwise go without. That principle — free care, freely given — has guided every Anidaso Health mission since our first trip in 2006.

Surgery at Kwahu Government Hospital

We were again working at Kwahu Government Hospital in Atibie, near Mpraeso off the main road from Accra. A dedicated surgical team established their base at the hospital surgery department — the OT theatre, as it is called locally — and performed more than 120+ surgeries in a two-week period. We were also fortunate to work with the team at St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Nkawkaw.

General an trauma surgeons carried out skin grafts, thyroidectomies, lipoma removals, hernia repairs, and other procedures that, due to lack of specialists, equipment, cost, or access to facilities, often do not take place in the region. Their work was aided by surgical equipment and instruments brought to Ghana by our volunteer staff. Those instruments were later donated to Kwahu Government Hospital, where they continue to serve patients long after our team returned home.

Local staff at the hospital supported the team throughout — in the wards, in casualty, in the theatre itself and in the villages. The hospital serves more than 300,000 people across the district and surrounding areas. With a doctor-to-patient ratio of approximately one to 32,000, every additional procedure matters.

Beyond the hospital walls

In addition to surgical work, we contributed funds and gifts to an orphanage, school supplies to local schools, donated medical equipment and educational materials to local health facilities and communities and villages. In the past we have also participated in clean water initiatives — bringing water filters to two villages and contributing to a well and pump project — because lasting health requires more than a single operating theatre.

Anidaso means hope in Twi, the main Ghanaian language. For the patients who received surgery, medicine, or simply a listening ear in May of 2025, that hope was made real — one volunteer, one village, one procedure at a time.