A Milnerton cardiologist, Professor Ntobeko Ntusi, will climb Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, on Thursday December 2, to raise money for Mowbray Maternity Hospital.
Professor Ntusi, who is the chair and head of medicine at UCT and Groote Schuur Hospital, hopes to raise R500 000 to buy a new ultrasound machine for the maternity hospital’s anaesthesia department.
“The new ultrasound machine is on the equipment wish list for Mowbray Maternity Hospital, but it has not been funded for this year,” he says.
He hopes his efforts will help the hospital buy the machine without having to wait for the Department of Health’s routine funding processes.
He says he has always led an active lifestyle through running, and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro has been a lifelong dream.
“The opportunity came around to link this bucket-list dream to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to such a worthy cause.”
Mowbray Maternity Hospital’s CEO, Janine Joemat, says the hospital is thrilled that Professor Ntusi has volunteered to use this climb to help the hospital.
Mowbray Maternity deals with women who have high-risk pregnancies, and many of them end up having caesarean sections to provide the safest outcome.
“We are thus very excited to be raising money to buy an anaesthetic ultrasound machine, which is standard of care in most institutions, as this allows safer and more painless insertion of intravenous catheters, which are required to provide safe care,” she says.
The hospital relies on support from donors and the public because its needs usually exceed the available budget, she says.
Professor Ntusi plans to take the Marangu Route to the summit. His GivenGain page has raised more than R40 000 so far. The public can visit the page to support his efforts or call Melanie Jackson at 082 852 0731.
