Esi Nana Ama Mensah-Bonsu
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Dr. Esi”
16 May 1967 — 12 June 2025 · aged 58
Consultant surgeon at Korle Bu who carried free operations to Ghana's northern villages
Accra, Ghana Born in Cape Coast, Central Region Resting at Anomabu family cemeteryAbout Esi
Theatre Four at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has a small wooden stool in the corner, built for the shortest surgeon on the team. Everyone knew whose it was. Dr. Esi Mensah-Bonsu stood on it for twenty years, and nobody ever operated better.
She was born in Cape Coast in 1967, the daughter of a land surveyor and a headmistress, and grew up in a house where homework was inspected at the dining table. Like her mother she attended Wesley Girls' High School, then read Medicine at the University of Ghana Medical School, qualifying in 1992. She trained in surgery at Korle Bu, took her fellowship with the West African College of Surgeons in 2002, and added a fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh two years later.
As a consultant general surgeon at Korle Bu from 2004, she led the breast and endocrine surgery unit and trained more than forty registrars. Colleagues remember her calm in an emergency, her laughter in the corridor afterwards, and her rule that every patient's family must be told the truth in plain words. For fifteen years she travelled north every few months to Tamale and Bolgatanga, running free surgical outreach camps for patients who could not reach Accra.
She married Dr. Nii Lante Sowah, an anaesthetist, in 1995, and was a devoted mother to their daughters Naana and Adjoa. She loved kelewele, her mother's Methodist hymns, and a garden full of hibiscus. When her mother died in 2020 she delivered the eulogy herself, without a note.
Dr. Esi died in June 2025 after a courageous illness, supported to the end by her family and colleagues. She leaves her husband, daughters and two brothers.
“A surgeon's job is to be there, calm, on the worst day of someone's life.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Cape Coast, Central Region
- Resting place
- Anomabu family cemetery
- Passed away
- 12 June 2025, Accra
Memorial Service & Burial
Tuesday, 1 July 2025 at 10:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Esi Mensah-Bonsu Surgical Outreach Fund
Keep Dr. Esi's free surgical camps in northern Ghana running for the patients she never turned away.
$2,436.75 raised of $12,000
20%20 recent contributions
- YA
Yusuf Ali gave $142.50 · 1y ago
“Pole sana to the family.”
- PO
Peter Odhiambo gave $190 · 1y ago
“From the church choir.”
- PO
Peter Odhiambo gave $9.50 · 1y ago
- PA
Prof. Kwabena Asare gave $190 · 1y ago
- SM
Sibongile Mkhize gave $28.50 · 1y ago
Life journey
Secondary education
Wesley Girls' High School1979 – 1986 · Cape Coast
Followed in her mother's footsteps.
MB ChB
University of Ghana Medical School1986 – 1992 · Accra
Qualified as a doctor with distinction in surgery.
Fellowship in Surgery
West African College of Surgeons1997 – 2002 · Lagos
Completed surgical training at Korle Bu.
Consultant General Surgeon
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital2004 – 2025 · Accra
Led the breast and endocrine surgery unit.
Married Dr. Nii Lante Sowah
1995 · Accra
A marriage of thirty years.
Surgical Outreach Lead
Tamale and Bolgatanga Surgical Camps2008 – 2025 · Northern Ghana
Free operations for patients who could not travel south.
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Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Esi is survived by
- Dr. Nii Lante Sowah· Spouse
- Naana Sowah· Daughter
- Adjoa Sowah· Daughter
- Kojo Mensah-Bonsu· Brother
- Rev. Yaw Mensah-Bonsu· Brother
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Esi.
Knew Esi? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- KA
Church friend, Calvary Methodist, Osu
She read the lesson on Sundays in the same steady voice she used on ward rounds. Several of us were once her patients, and none of us ever felt anything but safe. Calvary will feel very quiet without her.
- AO
Childhood friend and cousin
Esi and I shared a bunk at our grandmother's house in Anomabu. She would read the anatomy book at night by torch and test me on bones. I never learned them, but I learned what a calling looks like. Rest, my dear cousin.
- DF
Fellow surgeon, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
We trained together in Edinburgh in 2003. She cooked jollof for the whole ward on Christmas Day and then operated a night shift. Ghana sent us her best, and we were all better for the year she spent here.
- DQ
Former registrar
She taught me to tell a mother the truth in a sentence she could carry home. I have said those sentences many times since, and each time I remember her voice. She was the best teacher I will ever have.
- HS
Patient's mother, Tamale
My daughter had a growth in her neck that nobody in our district could treat. Dr. Esi came to Tamale on a Saturday, operated for four hours and slept at the hospital. My daughter is a teacher now. We pray for her every Friday.
- PA
Head of Surgery, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
In twenty years I never saw Esi lose her composure, not in the theatre and not in a department meeting. She trained our registrars to be calm and kind, in that order. Her stool will stay in Theatre Four, and nobody will be allowed to move it.
