Hakim described the surgery as successful and "fantastic". "Nice kidney," he announced after it was removed. It is the second kidney transplant he is performing since December when he transplanted a kidney into a 20-year-old boy at View Point Hospital in Abuja. A second donor gave a kidney for his friend of 35 years. The surgical team worked late into night to complete both surgeries.

 

Marathon surgeries

A total of three kidney transplants and four open-heart surgeries are scheduled at the hospitals over six days. The cardiac surgeries will be conducted entirely by Nigerian doctors, said Dr Miner. But Hakim was chosen to lead the kidney transplant because of his expertise. He is thought to have successfully done over 1,000 organ transplants and authored papers on the subject.

 

Dr Miner defended the choice of Dr Hakim to lead the team. "It is difficult for our people to trust our own people. And our people don't deserve any less [than to be operated on by renowned surgeons in the field]. It doesn't matter whether he's black or white." Up to 30 doctors, nurses and anaesthesists monitored the surgery streamed over the internet--along with journalists from major national media organisations providing live coverage on social media.

 

Beating cost

Garki is using the surgeries to show Nigerian doctors can handle delicate, cutting edge surgeries patients normally travel abroad for. Like in an earlier surgery in July to close a hole in the heart of two-year-old, Joanna--who had a congenital heart defect--Garki is having to bear some treatment cost. "There is too much capital flight going out of the country. What we want is to start doing these things in the country and hopefully in time with government support we can even bring down the prices as low as some of the countries people go to," said Dr Miner.

 

Kidney transplants in Nigeria cost up to N4.5 million--and experts estimate that managing chronic kidney disease with dialysis for 18 months alone could cost the same as a transplant. But few of the patients lined up for surgeries at Garki are able to afford the full cost. "Some are still expecting money from their places of work," said Dr Miner.

 

"We have written letters to them a long time ago but had very slow response. As of now, no government agency or parastatal where any one of these people work has committed even in writing to say they will support. Those that have provided a little bit of money has been out of benevolence of other people."

 

BY JUDD-LEONARD OKAFOR,