Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse

Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse (born 11 September 1953) is a Ghanaian surgeon and the first Ghanaian-trained female doctor to become a paediatric surgeon.

Quotes

• Take every experience as a learning process and make a conscious effort to read widely because the world has become so globalised, it would be disastrous if we failed to recognize that. And in all these, we should pray to God for inspiration
  • Etsey Atisu, PROF AFUA ADWO JECTEY HESSE, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, 15 April 2013
• To get my ideas working, I need to let them understand what I stand for, and intend doing for them: even when they are not pleased with the way I do things. I have to live by examples.
  • Etsey Atisu, PROF AFUA ADWO JECTEY HESSE, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, 15 April 2013
• I gained admission to the Wesley Girls High School (WeyGeyHey) Cape Coast, and pursued both my Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A) Levels and the University of Ghana Medical School subsequently.
  • [1]
• I was an unusually reserved young lady, for which I was teased by friends, I shrugged off that trait later, to the surprise of many.”

She became the Assistant Girls Prefect at Wesley Girls, in her final year. However, the icy hands of death took away her father, in her first year at the Medical School in 1971. This was a catastrophic and traumatic experience.

• • [2]
• His death affected my academic performance that semester. I pulled myself together after his burial, and told myself – I will not fail.
  • [3]
• I intend to transform Korle Bu into a centre of excellence where everybody will receive equal services from our medical staff. Patients will be received with open arms irrespective of the class or status, just as is done in the advanced countries.
  • [4]
• I want to be a team player, and hopes to get everybody working with me, and to encourage them to do things right, and at the right time; no matter how difficult.
  • [5]
• To get my ideas working, I need to let them understand what I stand for, and intend doing for them: even when they are not pleased with the way I do things. I have to live by examples.
  • [6]
• Sometimes tough, especially when I wants something done. Most of the people who I have worked with understand me.
  • [7]
• Do not procrastinate. I believe the youth of today have numerous opportunities which they must explore but is worried that many are not patient.
  • [8]
• I lamented how quickly they want to amass wealth for themselves, disregarding wealth of experiences of the elderly and appreciating the need for hard work to achieve laurels.
  • [9]
• Working as a Paedi­atric Surgeon was God’s plan for my life because l was told by my par­ents that at the age of four, l had indicated l would become a paediatric surgeon. It is so surprising that l knew nothing about it so l inferred that it was God who had directed my thoughts.
  • [10]
• It was an arduous task working continuously as a paediatric surgeon with no time to rest. Later, she had to recruit more doctors and nurses to assist her in the department and ensured that the staff were exposed to some of the best practices outside the country.
  • [11]
• I have never wavered going through all the disciplines in medicine.
  • [12]
• In paediatric surgery, a child comes to the hospital with a problem and when you operate on the child or you correct the problem, the next day the child is ready to go and play football. In this situation, the anxious parents would like to find out wheth­er the child should be allowed to play or not.
  • [13]
• There was no regret working as a Paediatric Surgeon because I attached professionalism to my work and the relief given to par­ents and their sick children had provided me a lot of satisfaction. Additionally, working with my hands to see a little child get better was a wonderful activity which she took delight in.
  • [14]
• The Paediatric Surgery Depart­ment took care of newborn babies up to 13 years.
  • [15]
• The challenges in the department included the clinical condition the patient was identified with, you could diagnose the condition and prescribe medication for the patient, but the parents could not purchase the medicine, and having completed a nice job, the post-operative man­agement of the case could be problematic because the parents could not provide the needed items.
  • [16]
• I intimat­ed that there were occasions I had to use my money in support of needy children on admission in the hospital, and this situation had occasioned the establishment of a Special Fund in the department in support of needy children.
  • [17]
• One of my sons had expressed concern that there were many students who had applied to the medical schools in Ghana with good grades but could not gain admission to the public medical schools because of the cut-off point, so he asked why couldn’t the family establish a school to cater for some of these students.
  • [18]
• My family decid­ed to manage the academic part of the university while other stakeholders provide the financial part. That was the vision to get stakehold­ers who would provide the needed funds for this laudable project, hence the coming into being of the Accra Col­lege of Medicine.
  • [19]
• By the grace of God, the school has graduated 28 medical doctors from three batches. The main thing is about their work ethics and high character.
  • [20]
• I urged Ghanaians to de­sist from telling lies and do what they would like to do if nobody was watching them.
  • [21]