On average, 7,000 children are born with hole-in-heart conditions in Ghana every year.

Two-year-old Blessing Ama Woode Kwamba from Obuasi, diagnosed with a hole-in-heart, lived with the condition all her life, needing $7,000 to correct the defect.

Blessing, along with three others with delicate medical complications, have been provided financial assistance from the ‘Fifty-50 Club’ for surgical procedures.

Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), also known as ‘hole-in-heart’ refers to inborn heart defects which involve abnormal openings in the walls (septum) that separate the heart's chambers.

The cost of treating this defect ranges between $6,000 and $13,000 leaving patients from underprivileged families at the benevolence of individuals and entities to fund their treatment and general healthcare.

Young Blessing Ama Woode Kwamba was diagnosed with the defect at the age of two and needed $7,000 to undergo a surgical procedure at the National Cardiothoracic Center, Korle-bu Teaching Hospital.

The ‘Fifty 50 Club’ has donated a sum of GHc10,000 to the 2-year-old Hole-in-heart patient.

Nine-year-old Federica Owusu Yeboah, also diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer received GHc 3,500 to cater for the cost of the CT scan, while 6-year-old Frederick Agyeman Duah with a sickle cell disorder had GHc 1,000 support.

A donation of GHc 10,000 was made to 42-year-old James Danquah, diagnosed with an acquired heart disease, Severe Mitral Valve Regurgitation.

President of Fifty 50 Club, Jacob Edmund-Acquah, explained the urgency of their situations informed the gesture.

“We get referrals from the doctors who are members of the club. Our own members also help us bring people. The seriousness of their issues prompts us to provide support. I hope there will be some form of a national program because I don't think we are there. We just started about three years ago yet overwhelmed with applications from people seeking help to undergo their surgeries. We can't help everybody because we have limited resources,” he said.

Dr. Kwadwo Anim, the Executive Director of AGA Health Foundation, said a swift intervention will prevent further complications.

“You would realize that the socioeconomic background of these families makes it very difficult for them to achieve this level of treatment in a short time. So some of them have grown with a condition and they have to keep asking for alms to be able to survive. So I consider the club’s step a laudable one for making an impact in the lives of these people. Otherwise in Ghana, it would have gotten worse,” he said

Gladys Adu, the mother of Blessing Ama Woode Kwamba, showed appreciation to the club for coming to the aid of her daughter.