CMD UITH, Prof Abdulwaheed Olatinwo with mic. and Chairman,Task Force on open heart surgery, Prof Adedoyin
University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, UITH, in collaboration with Apollo Children’s Hospital, India, performs Open Heart Surgery
STEPHEN OLUFEMI ONI/Ilorin.
Smarting from its first ever kidney transplant in 2012, making it one of just about eight hospitals rendering such advanced service in Nigeria and the only one in the North Central zone, the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, UITH, was penultimate week in its element having recorded another major medical feat as its surgeons successfully performed an Open Heart Surgery on two patients.
The two patients, who were reported to be in stable condition after the surgery and would soon be discharged from the hospital, are Aishat Jibril, 15, and Kamalat Balogun, 17. It is significant that another set of between five and 10 patients would also benefit from the next round of surgical operation to be conducted by the UITH in October.
Briefing journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, on Thursday 30 July on the feat, the Chief Medical Director, CMD, of UITH, Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, said the decision to move the hospital into the field of Open Heart Surgery was predicated on the recognition of cardiovascular diseases as the number one cause of death nationwide arising from non-communicable disease.
According to the CMD, common indications for Open Heart Surgery such as congenital heart diseases are prevalent in Nigeria, occurring in one in 100,000 live births and are a cause of early childhood death or disability when left untreated, lamenting that many of the affected children are from poor families who cannot afford the huge cost of care outside the country.
He said: “The hospital management team decided to move the hospital into this new realm of service delivery to give succour to the helpless pa(ients in our society and contribute our quota to reversing the current trend of medical tourism to hospitals outside the country and end the associated capital flight.”
Olatinwo disclosed that the first session of the Open Heart Surgery was in collaboration with their partners from Apollo Children’s Hospital, India. The partnership which he described as strategic has two benefits. Aside from exposing the patients to the highest quality of surgical care comparable to that which is obtainable anywhere in the world, it will also faciltate skills transfer to the UITH cardiac-care team such that subsequent surgeries are entirely carried out by them.
He said: “Having successfully achieved this milestone in the development of our hospital, I am glad to say that we are not resting on our oars. We will not sit still because our goal is to become a one-stop shop for all medical solutions. Our next phase of clinical service expansion which will take off within the next few weeks is the commencement of Cosmetic Surgery in our hospital.”
Commending the federal government and well-meaning individuals such as Chief Raimi Oladimeji, Engineer and Dr. (Mrs) Oyeleke and the Managing Director of SEAP, Pastor Oladokun for their invaluable support towards the success of the programme, the CMD said a lot more needs to be done if the new phase of clinical care in the hospital is to be sustained. He said: “A lot of financial investment is required and I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the government at all levels, public-spirited individuals and corporate organisations to partner with the UITH to fully equip the Cardiac Centre to include a Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory. We have already purchased a heart-lung machine which was used during the recent mission, equipping the centre is next on the list of things to do.”
He highlighted the challenges confronting the hospital, majorly in areas of power supply, potable water supply and inadequacy of access road to the hospital, pointing out that the hospital has been able to turn the challenges to opportunities through maximal utilisation of available resources, intelligent planning, team focus and commitment to excellence.
In his remarks, the leader of the Indian medical team, Dr. Neville Solomon, noted that paediatric heart surgery is labour-consuming, time-consuming and money-consuming, adding that “children who have heart surgery without proper infrastructure will die like flies.” The rest two other members of the Indian medical team are Rajagopal and Sunlar.