Several victims of the recent accident involving actor Benson Nana Yaw Oduro Boateng known popularly as Funny Face are currently receiving medical care at various facilities, with one victim reported to be in a coma.
The incident, which occurred on Sunday, March 24, saw three of the injured individuals transferred to the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital, while another is undergoing treatment at a local clinic in Nyanyano Kakraba.
In a heartbreaking disclosure, the brother of one victim revealed that his sibling is currently in a coma at the Nyanyano Kakraba community hospital.
Speaking to Adom News, Isaac Asare, the victim’s brother, shared the ordeal of trying to secure proper medical care. Initially taken to Ridge Hospital, the patient faced bed shortages that prevented admission.
Subsequently, they attempted the Police Hospital, only to face the same issue.
Given these challenges, Mr. Asare expressed hope for divine intervention to facilitate a transfer to a larger medical facility where more comprehensive care can be provided.
Meanwhile, Funny Face, accompanied by his manager and colleagues from the film industry, is cooperating with authorities at the Kasoa Divisional Police Command as investigations into the accident proceed.
Grace Gift Herbal Clinic’s Dr. Grace Boadu, has tragically passed away, as initially reported by Kessben FM on its social media platforms.
According to the reports, Dr. Grace Boadu succumbed to a prolonged illness hours ago.
Online, Ghanaians are expressing their condolences on their social media profiles to show support for the grieving family. The nation mourns the loss of an esteemed heroine and philanthropist.
It is worth noting that in November of the previous year, she generously contributed Ghc10,000 to the ‘Heal Okomfo Anokye Project,’ an initiative spearheaded by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
Campaigns in Egypt demand that young females no longer get circumcised. The 28 million women who have previously undergone genital mutilation have just one private clinic to turn to for assistance, even if the state wishes to safeguard future generations.
Nourhane, in her thirties, took the plunge at the end of 2021. This resident of Alexandria, in the coastal north, who speaks under a pseudonym, turned to surgeon Reham Awwad to “become once again the one who decides for (her) body”.
Eight months after a reconstruction operation, her chronic pain has been replaced by “completely new sensations” and “a clear physical and psychological improvement,” she explained.
It has only been possible to carry out this type of operation in Egypt since 2020.
By founding Restore FGM, Dr Awwad and her colleague Amr Seifeldin have offered victims a rare space in a country where disclosing excision is still taboo.
Surrounded by psychologists, they offer therapies, plasma injections to regenerate damaged tissue and clitoral reconstruction.
“Surgery is the last resort”, insists Dr Awwad, adding that plasma injections combined with psychological support “can reduce the need for surgery by 50%” and avoid another traumatic procedure.
This is the option being considered by Intisar, who is also speaking under a pseudonym. “Something in me has been broken, and I want to repair it”, told the forty-year-old.
When she was 10, “my grandmother took me to a doctor who excised me”, and she kept saying “it’s for your own good, you’re better off like that”. Despite being a doctor and the headmistress of her school, her parents had agreed to the operation during the summer the peak of girl circumcisions, according to campaigner Lobna Darwish.
An old tradition now medicalized
To combat this practice, “we need to run prevention campaigns in schools before the summer holidays”, argues Ms. Darwish, who oversees gender issues at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
The figures are staggering according to the authorities, 86% of married Egyptian women aged between 15 and 49 had been circumcised by 2021. UNICEF estimates that 200 million women in the world have been circumcised. More than one in ten is Egyptian.
In the most populous of Arab countries, excision involves the removal of the clitoris and labia minora. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it causes pain, hemorrhage, infections, painful sexual relations and complications during childbirth.
Although illegal since 2008 and regularly denounced by the Muslim and Christian authorities, this age-old practice remains widespread in the patriarchal and conservative country, where many clinics offer it.
After years of campaigning against traditional excisers, three quarters of Egyptian women have been circumcised by a doctor, according to official figures.
“Excision cuts across all social classes,” says Intissar, now a journalist.
Promoted as a “cosmetic” operation, she continues, it is in fact aimed at “disconnecting women from their bodies and their pleasure”.
“We were told that it was religious, that it was better, cleaner”, agrees Nourhane, who was mutilated at the age of 11 with her eight-year-old sister under the gaze of the women in her family.
Egypt isn’t the only country that practices this ritual in Africa.
A medical clinic in Dnipro, located in eastern Ukraine, was targeted by a missile strike, resulting in the death of at least one person and the injury of 15 others.
Among the wounded are two young boys, aged three and six, according to Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the attack and assured that authorities were actively engaged in rescuing any remaining individuals trapped in the hospital.
Prior to this, on Thursday night, Dnipro experienced an assault, as stated by Governor Lysak.
“It was a very difficult night. It was loud – the enemy launched a mass attack on the region with missiles and drones,” he said. “Dnipro has suffered.”
⚡️1 killed and 15 injured in Dnipro after a supposed Russian missile struck a hospital. pic.twitter.com/KnjjJkPZee
Mr Zelensky posted a video of the damaged clinic building that showed firefighters at the scene and smoke billowing from the building.
“Russian terrorists once again confirm their status of fighters against everything humane and honest,” he said.
Another 🇷🇺 missile attack, another crime against humanity as such. The buildings of a psychological clinic and a veterinary clinic in the city of Dnipro were destroyed. As of now, one person was killed and 15 were wounded. The shelling aftermath is being eliminated and the… pic.twitter.com/D0bYBPByjn
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 26, 2023
Overnight, Ukrainian authorities claimed to have successfully intercepted and downed 17 missiles along with 31 drones that were launched from Russia. The attacks targeted various locations, including Dnipro and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, where an oil depot was hit.
Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, also experienced attacks, resulting in intercepted drone fragments falling on the roof of a shopping center and causing damage to a house and multiple cars.
In recent weeks, Russia has escalated its assaults on Ukraine, specifically targeting critical infrastructure in anticipation of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
On Thursday, Ukraine reportedly launched a rocket and a drone towards two regions in Russia’s south. However, Russia’s air defense systems claim to have successfully shot down the missile.
A blast in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar caused damage to a residential and office building, although the cause remains unclear. Russian media sources have suggested that it was the result of a drone attack.
