Severe head injuries sustained from motor accidents top list of deaths at Tamale Teaching Hospitals

The Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) has disclosed that severe head injury was the leading cause of death in the hospital in 2021.

Data from the hospital shows that 73 patients who arrived at the emergency unit died from severe head injuries in 2021, while 16 died on admission over the same period.

Bringing to a total of 89 people dying from severe head injuries alone at the hospital last year.

The hospital said injuries suffered to the head, largely because of motorbike accidents have been in the top three leading causes of mortality in the hospital since 2018.’

“Among the top five causes of admissions in the hospital, featured are severe head injuries and fractures. When you look at our top five causes of death in Tamale, featuring prominently is severe head injury again,” Dr. Adam Atiku, the Director of Medical Affairs at the TTH disclosed.

“For every year for the past three years, severe head injury has always been among the top three causes of death among our people,” he revealed.

Dr. Atiku who was speaking to the media on Wednesday at the Tamale Teaching Hospital’s 2021 Annual Performance Review said most of the victims are usually between the ages of 18 and 26, adding that it was a worrying situation.

“If you look at the data, most of them are between the ages of 18 to 26 years, so it means that we’re losing a lot of our young people. They usually come in a very bad state and managing severe head injury requires a lot of resources, it needs a lot of technical skills to manage these conditions, so, the mortality rates for the head injuries are quite high,” he noted.

He expressed worry over the development, appealing to motorbike riders to ensure they are always wearing crash helmets.

Commenting on the development, the Chief Executive Officer of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Oheneba Owusu Danso said the situation required urgent intervention, calling on the TTH to share the data with the Regional Security Council.

This he stressed, will assist the security council in adopting measures to save lives in the region.

The 2021 Annual Performance Review was under the theme “Re-engineering TTH’s Healthcare Landscape for Quality Tertiary Service Provision and Medical Tourism”.

Meanwhile, Dr. Atiku disclosed plans by the hospital to transform its COVID-19 Treatment Center into an ultramodern Infectious Disease Center.

He said the transformation will ensure that the TTH is always prepared to handle the outbreak of infectious diseases in Northern Ghana and beyond.

Dr. Atiku said when completed, the facility will be stocked with equipment and have a dedicated staff.