On Wednesday, December 13th, 2023, Vivo Energy Ghana, a Shell licensee, donated a smoke evacuator worth millions of Ghana Cedis to the Department of Surgery of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
Speaking to the press after the donation, the Communications Manager of Vivo Energy Ghana, Shirley Tony Kum, said the lives of the Ghanaian people are so essential to Vivo, which is why they decided to buy this object that cost them millions of Ghana Cedis.
On the rationale for their gesture, Mrs. Kum explained that her company had been in talks with Korle-Bu on how they could help them as part of their corporate social responsibility, and the hospital told them that the Surgery Department needed a smoke evacuator to curtail the smoke both surgeons and patients have to inhale during surgery.
“They told us that the smoke evacuator was what they needed most and would be grateful if we could help them in that regard, and because human life is essential to Shell, we decided to buy them this machine,” she stated.
According to her, even though they do not intend to disclose the cost of the product to the general public, its cost is way below the function it is going to play in the lives of both doctors and patients.
“The cost of the device is very expensive, and we wouldn’t want to disclose it to the general public. What matters most is the fact that Ghanaians know that this kind of device has been given to Korle-Bu and that it’s going to be useful to all Ghanaians,” Mrs. Kum furthered.
As an oil marketing company that seeks to promote and ensure that drivers are in good health and alive while plying their professions, she also ceased the opportunity to advise drivers to take very good care of themselves and see to it that the incidents of accidents are reduced to the barest minimum.
Receiving the device on behalf of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and the surgery department, Dr. Josephine Nsaful thanked Vivo Energy Ghana for their timely support of the unit.
She encouraged Ghanaian women to regularly undergo breast cancer checks to detect early signs and fight the disease before it progresses to a point where no cure exists.