Valley doctor plans mission to Ghana to reconstruct breasts, restore hope

YOUNGSTOWN — Women in Ghana and most developing countries would rather die of breast cancer than have life-saving surgery and face losing a boyfriend or husband who no longer sees them as whole women.

“It’s sad,” said Dr. Michael K. Obeng, a native of Ghana, who has formed a nonprofit organization, RESTORE Worldwide, to try and reverse that situation. RESTORE is an acronym for Restoring Emotional Stability Through Outstanding Reconstructive Efforts.

The answer is reconstructive surgery, a skill Dr. Obeng, a plastic surgeon and breast reconstructive specialist, wants to impart to Ghanaian plastic surgeons, of which he says there were only seven in a nation of 23 million in 2007.

Dr. Obeng, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center and a staff surgeon at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.