To bridge the critical health care gap in the country, Alliance Hospital has performed her first open heart surgeries on five patients.
Briefing journalists in Abuja, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Otabor Christopher, said the surgeries have been massively subsidised by provisions of the art surgery consumables from the ''Save A Heart Foundation'', a UK-based non governmental organisation.
According to him, "the target of this partnership between the foundation and the Alliance Hospital is to do three hundred (300) cases of open heart surgeries per annum with the potential to increase. At the moment, the entire number of open heart surgeries done across the country is still less than 150 per annum."
Christopher revealed that the first batch of the open heart surgeries which started on 13th and end on the 15th of November have been massively subsidised by the provision of heart surgery consumables from the foundation.
He added that four cases had been slated for the first part of the surgery which includes; Replacement of Neutral Valve, Coronary Artery bypass graft, aortic balance repair. And Aortic aneurism replacement (Modified Bentell's Operation)- which would be the first time it would be done in Nigeria. Christopher emphasised that these set of surgeries were possible in the hospital due to the availability of critical equipment and facilities such as a well equipped and well staffed Intensive Care Initiative, two Ultra Modern Operating Theatres, Computed Tomography (CT) Scan, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan, Mobile Digital X-Rat System among others.
He stated that other procedures undertake by the hospital includes; Joint Replacement Surgeries, Neurosurgeries, Spine surgeries, Transurethral resection of the prostrate, Laparoscopic surgeries and endoscopies, among others.
While fielding questions from journalists, one of the surgeons, Dr. Onyekwere Nzewi said in one of the operations they carried out; "the main valves that leads the blood out of the heart suppose to open and close, hers open and doesn't close, instead of the blood going forward, half of it goes backward, and what happens is that it dams down into the lungs, we have now replaced the valves so that the artificial valves open and let the blood out."
He added that the patient is expected to make a full recovery, stressing that though open heart surgery has a lot of potential complications. "But in her own case, she lost a pant of blood, we haven't given her any blood and seems she might not require any blood. We have opened the heart and gone through it, there is a risk of her having infections but that is treatable with antibiotics," Nzewi noted.
The surgeon said that the lady they operated on had previously gone to United States to have the surgery before but the equivalent of the money she was asked to pay was N26 million, while she paid N3 million to get it done at the hospital.
By: Adedayo Akinwale
This Day News
ABUJA: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
PORTHARCOURT: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
LAGOS: Training Schedule for Basic Life Support BLS, Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support ACLS, First Aid, CPR, AED
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