University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, has successfully carried out free open-heart surgeries on 10 indigent patients.

 

The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Obinna Onodugo, disclosed that 20 out of several patients on the waiting list could not undergo scheduled surgery due to challenges faced by the hospital’s foreign counterparts whose equipment were seized by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for four days.

 

He regretted that several people had died from heart complications.

 

Former Provost, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria (UNN) and Chairman of the UNTH Cardiothoracic Centre of Excellence, Prof. Basden Onwubere, said the hospital had recorded about 250 open-heart surgeries since February 1974, the highest by any health institution in sub-Saharan Africa.