13/12/2025
WHERE'S THE VEIN FINDER?
I recently watched a video of a 8yr old little boy (sickle cells patient) enduring repeated attempts with pain to find a vein for an infusion. I could not hold back my tears because this pain was entirely preventable.
Chemotherapy treatments can often weaken patients' veins, which can make every hospital visit a difficult experience. The repeated needlesticks, the associated anxiety, and the expectation of silent endurance from patients can be deeply traumatic aspects of the treatment process. Witnessing a child undergo this experience is particularly heartbreaking.
This forces us to ask an important question: where are the vein finders in our health facilities?
Vein finders are simple but critical tools that help locate veins quickly and accurately, especially for children, oncology patients, the elderly, and others with difficult venous access. They are not luxuries—they are essential for humane, patient-centred care. Without them, patients suffer unnecessarily and healthcare workers are left without the tools they need to do their jobs well.
No child should endure repeated needle pricks when technology exists to ease their pain. Preventable suffering must never be normalised.
This is a call to policymakers, health authorities, corporate partners, donors, and advocates: let us make vein finders a priority in our public health facilities particularly in paediatric and oncology units.
Patbella Hope Foundation, we are ready to work with partners to turn this moment into action through advocacy, policy engagement, and resource mobilisation. If you share this concern and want to be part of a practical, compassionate solution, let’s collaborate to ensure dignity in patient care.
Because pain should never be the price of survival. Kuukua Essel-Addo Comfort Adjei Baidoo Portia Asare Boateng Becce Quaicoe Beatrice Maganga Ama Kpetigo-Ayittey Gloria Kankam Eunice Agbenyadzi Adigbo Patrick Owusu Yeboah Patricia Essel
