The University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) has recorded a major medical feat as its surgeons successfully conducted open heart surgery on two patients .
The UITH surgeons performed the heart surgery in collaboration with their counterparts from Apollo Children’s Hospital, India.
The two patients are Aishat Jibril,15 and Kamalat Balogun,7 who are said to be in stable condition after undergoing the surgery.
Another set of 5-10 patients will benefit from the programme in the next round of surgical operation fixed for October and November.
The Chief Medical Director of UITH, Prof. AbdulWaheed Olatinwo broke the cheering news during a news conference at the hospital’s complex, Oke- Oyi yesterday.
The CMD stated that the hospital ventured into the “Open Heart Surgery Programme” because of its recognition of cardiovascular diseases as the number one cause of non-communicable diseases death nationwide.
He added:”Specifically, common indications for Open Heart Surgery such as congenital heart disease are common in our environment occurring in about 1 in 100, 000 live births and when left untreated are a cause of early childhood death or disability. Many of the affected children are from poor families who cannot afford the huge cost of care outside the country.
“The hospital management decided to move the Hospital into this new realm of service delivery to give succour to the helpless patients in the society and contribute our quota to reversing the current trend of medical tourism to hospitals outsde the country and end the associated capitla flight.
“The success of this programme was made possible by the invaluable support of the federal government through strategic allocation and prudent use of our internally generated revenue, careful selection of the right teams, the contributions of our staff in cash and in kind, and the generous support of many philantropists in the society”.
Olatinwo called for continuous support of government, public spirited people and corporate organisations to partners with the hospital to fully equip its cardiac centre to include a cardiac catheterization laboratory, adding that to sustain this new phase of clinical care, a lot more needs to be done and a lot of financial investmnet is required.
“We have already purchased a heart-lung machine which was used during the recent mission, equippuing the cardiac centre is next on the list of things to do.
“The first session was held in collaboration with our Partners from Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, india. This strategic partnership is of two benefits; First is that it exposes our patients to the highest quality of surgical care comparable to that which is obtainable anywhere in the world and secondly, it can facilitate skills transfer to our Hospital’s cardiac care team such that subsequent surgeries are entirely done by them.
“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 society,” he stated.
The CMD highlighted the challnges confronting the hospital to include poor power supply, lack of potable water and most especially the inadequacy of access road to the hospital espeically from the Kulende junction-Sango-Oyun bridge-Apata Yakuba axis.
He said they depend 90 per cent on generating sets to generate power, saying this has caused strain on the institution’s meagre resources.
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