Charles Odamtten Easmon (22 September 1913 – 19 May 1994). Easmon was of Sierra Leone Creole, Ga-Dangme, African-American, Danish, and Irish ancestry and a member of the distinguished Easmon family, a Sierra Leone Creole medical dynasty of African-American descent.
Born 22 September 1913, in Adawso, Gold Coast (Ghana), to Kate Salome Odamtten (1893–1940) and John Farrell Easmon (c. 1881–1920). Charles Odamtten Easmon was the first child of his mother and his younger siblings were Jonas Nii Lamptey, Laura Quartey, and Mary A. Sackeyfio.
Charles Odamtten “Charlie” Easmon was enrolled at Osu St. Thomas School in 1918 and he later attended the Osu Presbyterian Boys’ Boarding School, also known as Osu Salem in Accra, Ghana, in 1928.
After winning a Cadbury scholarship, Easmon attended the prestigious Achimota School in Accra, Ghana, while at school, Easmon was known for his drawings, so his teachers believed he would become an artist.
A gifted athlete as well, Easmon on completing his secondary education earned a colonial government scholarship to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
The government scholarship he won to study medicine in Edinburgh in 1935 made him the third Gold Coast Medical Scholar after Oku Ampofo (1933) and Eustace Akwei (1934).
He qualified with an MB.ChB. in 1940 and also earned a certificate in tropical hygiene and medicine.
In 1946, He became the first Ghanaian to be admitted at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, UK, as a Fellow, following the completion of his medical course.
Upon his return to the Gold Coast (Ghana), he worked at Korle Bu Hospital in Accra, and was eventually put in charge of the hospital.
In June 1959, he left Ghana for the United States on a five-month fellowship offered by the State Department in order to create understanding between Ghana and the United States.
He was assigned at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was elected as a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons.
In 1960, Kwame Nkrumah appointed Easmon as the Chief Medical Officer of Ghana and Easmon assumed this role in September 1962.
Easmon served with distinction in this position, however, he was reassigned to an academic post as the first Dean and Professor of surgery at the newly established University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS).
Professor Charles Odamtten Easmon achieved a number of feats in his lifetime, to name a few; he was the first Ghanaian to qualify as a surgeon;
Easmon performed the first successful open-heart surgery in Ghana in 1964, and modern scholars credit him as the “Father of Cardiac Surgery in West Africa”;
The first Ghanaian to obtain a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh, UK;
The first Ghanaian to obtain a Fellowship of a College in any branch of medicine;
The first Ghanaian to be appointed Surgical Specialist;
The first Ghanaian to be appointed Chief Surgeon of Ghana;
The first Ghanaian to be appointed Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health;
The first president of the Ghana Medical Association;
The first Dean of the Ghana Medical School;
The first Professor of Surgery of the University of Ghana Medical School;
The first Ghanaian to be president of the West African College of Surgeons;
The first Ghanaian to be elected a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons;
The first Chairman of the Ghana Medical and Dental Council;
The first Chairman of the Council for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine.
He designed the logo of the Ghana Medical Association.
Easmon was awarded a Grand Medal by the Ghanaian government in 1968 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Cape Coast.
The College of Health Sciences dedicated its building to the memory of Professor Charles Odamtten Easmon in 2012, with a bust of him unveiled by his wife Genevieve Easmon.
The University of Ghana Medical School also presents the Charles Easmon Prize in Surgery to the best medical student in surgery.
A ward at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, Ghana has been named after him.
Professor Charles Odamtten Easmon’s lucrative private practice and free treatment of patients made him a household name throughout Ghana.