A 14 year patient, Kofi Obeng, has been detained for three months at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for his parents’ inability to foot his medical bills. He owes the hospital about 3000 Ghana cedis; after he underwent a surgical operation at the Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery unit (RPS). Even after completing a successful initial operation, Joy New’s Prince Fortune Effanga described Kofi Obeng’s present condition as “greatly deformed”. “He has lost his ears and part of his nose and can barely see with his right eye. All his five fingers have been lost to the fire. He can barely tilts his head, the skin covering his head, neck and part of his right arm was taken from his thigh in what medical experts term grafting,” Fortune Effanga captured the emotional picture of the distressed teenager. Obeng recounted to Joy News the unfortunate incident that has virtually changed his destiny. “My Auntie’s husband did this to me because he suspected that she (auntie) was flirting with another man, so he threatened to slash her with a cutlass, if she did not pay back the money that he has spent on her when they were married. “After the quarrel, my Auntie went back to her secret lover, on Friday evening, my Auntie’s husband locked our room and poured petrol around the house whilst we were asleep. “He set the place ablaze and he absconded; his only child, myself and my other siblings sustained severe injuries.” Dr. Albert Bedford Paintsil, Head of the RPS unit and a leading member of the team that treated him, described Kofi Obeng as “a pleasant and nice person who has unfortunately sustained these injuries through no fault of his”. He noted that the Centre is making an attempt to help him pay his bill to enable him undergo further surgery. The boy’s mother noted that she has no money and also exhausted all other avenues to raise funds without any success. Story by Isaac Essel