Korle Bu in blood emergency mode
Accra, March 19, Ghanadot/GNA - The
Management of the Korle Bu Teaching, on Thursday
appealed to the public to urgently donate blood to the
hospital to enable it to save the lives of patients,
especially accident victims.
The hospital cited that even though it had enough blood
to attend to victims of the recent accident at Winneba
Roundabout in the Central Region, involving a gas tanker
and three other vehicles, the hospital might run out of
stock.
Mr Mutstaph Salifu, Public Relations Officer of the
hospital, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on
Thursday said "We have sufficient logistics but the
conditions of the accident victims are so critical that
the demand for blood will be high and we might run out
of stock".
He said one dead body and 12 injured persons of the
recent
Winneba Roundabout accident, were referred to the
hospital and three of the victims died later at the
hospital.
The accident, which occurred in the evening of
Wednesday, March 18, 2009, left about 36 victims with
between 80 to 90 per cent burns on their bodies.
Most of the victims were occupants of the tanker and the
three vehicles, eyewitnesses and volunteers, who were at
the accident spot to rescue victims.
Dr. Dodi Abdallah, medical officer of Winneba Government
Hospital, said the burns on some of the victims were
serious and fatal as most of them were burnt from head
to toe, adding, "Their survival is very slim".
According to eye witnesses' account, a tyre of the
tanker got burst, causing the driver to loose control of
the steering wheel resulting in a head-on collision with
an Opal vehicle.
In the process, the tanker got severed from the rest of
truck and the gas exploded.
Seven people had died, one on the spot and six others
soon after admission at the Winneba Government Hospital
from severe burns they sustained.
According to the Police, a fully loaded gas tanker
heading towards Takoradi had a head-on collision with an
Opal passenger vehicle, which was moving from the
opposite direction of the road.
The police said two other vehicles that were following
the Opal and the tanker closely, caught fire.
According to the police, a total of 35 passengers on
board the vehicles were rushed to the Winneba Government
hospital, but six died soon on admission at the
hospital.
Four persons whose conditions were stable were receiving
treatment at the Winneba Government hospital, while the
unidentified bodies have been deposited at the mortuary
of the same hospital.
In another development the police said they had
discovered three badly burnt bodies at the accident
scene this morning which had been deposited at the
Winneba Government Hospital mortuary.
The police are investigating the cause of the accident.
GNA
