The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Oluyinka Olutoye

  • Nigeria is doing well with scarce resources – Osinbajo

    Nigeria is doing well with scarce resources – Osinbajo

    The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Sunday said the problem in Nigeria was not unavailability of resources, but their management.

    According to him, the Federal Government is now doing more when funds are scarce than in the days when oil was selling at over 100 dollars per barrel.

    Osinbajo stated this when he received Dr Oluyinka Olutoye, a U.S.-based Nigerian medical doctor, who achieved a feat with the treatment of a foetus in the U.S., at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Congratulating Olutoye for the sterling performance, he said “Nigeria produces the best in every way; its citizens continue to shine in various ways around the world.

    “As we continue to do what is right in public service, the country is bound to reach the top globally as a people.’’

    In a rare medical feat, Olutoye brought out a foetus from a woman’s womb to remove a tumour from it, and restored the unborn baby to the womb successfully.

    The woman, Margaret Boemer, then continued to carry the pregnancy to term and was later delivered of the baby safely and well.

    Osinbajo told Houston-based Olutoye, who was accompanied to the Villa by members of his family, including his wife and parents that, “our country continues to shine in various ways.

    “Your achievement is remarkable in every sense. People are bound to wonder; it’s the kind that fables are made of, and this is from someone who is Nigeria-trained.”

    He said that Nigeria could be well run, but that it would take “a lot of doing by good men and women,” adding that the country produced the best in every way.

    The acting president said that in the past two years, he had learnt that “if we do the right things, day-by-day, we’ll change and improve the Nigerian situation significantly.

    “When we were making over 100 dollars per barrel of oil, we were owing oil JVC cash-calls, not able to pay salaries and owing contractors.

    “Now that we are down in earnings by 60 per cent, we have sorted out the problem of cash-calls and are able to support states to pay salaries.”

    Earlier, Olutoye had attributed his medical successes in the U.S. to his Nigerian training and education up till the university, having graduated in Medicine from the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife.

    “All we have achieved from primary to university is from Nigeria, and I believe that Nigeria will surpass what we have achieved out there,” he said.

    For the feat, Olutoye won U.S and world recognition.

  • Osinbajo scores Nigerian ‘Jollof rice’ high

    Osinbajo scores Nigerian ‘Jollof rice’ high

    Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice-President on Monday described Nigerian-cooked jollof rice as “the best in the world”.

    The New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that recently, while responding to a question by Richard Quest, CNN International business editor, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, was quoted to have said that the Senegalese make the best jollof rice on the continent.

    Although Quest made attempt to defend the minister, saying the minister did not hear his answer correctly, the incident sparked off unpleasant reactions on social media among a cross-section of Nigerians.

    The Vice-President gave the score card while speaking at “The Platform Nigeria,” a Global Media live broadcast LIVE on Channels TV and online convened by Poju Oyemade, Senior Pastor of the Covenant Christian Centre, in Lagos.

    He said:“And by the way, we all know that Nigerian jollof rice is the best, we beat the Ghanaians and the Senegalese hands down.”

    “We have everything, and our people are doing incredibly innovative things.

    “Our music and entertainment industry is the fastest growing in the world,and of course, nobody is as funny as Nigerians, whether professional or amateur,” he noted.

    The VP also extolled Nigerians innovative feats in various fields,especially in recent times.

    “Last year Oluyinka Olutoye, a Nigerian surgeon successfully took out a baby from her mother’s womb, operated on the womb, and put the baby back in.

    “The baby was carried full term and was born naturally – a feat previously unheard of.

    “Only last year, a Nigerian girl Morolake Akinosun won a gold medal at the Olympics.

    “Last Saturday, a Nigerian boxer Anthony Oluwafemi Joshua won the WBA, becoming the boxing champion of the world.”

    Jollof rice is a staple meal among Africans, however over the years, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Senegalese and other African countries have claimed to make the best of the meal.

  • Oluyinka Olutoye: Surgical magic

    Oluyinka Olutoye: Surgical magic

    SECOND RUNNER-UP

    THOSE who knew ‘Toy’ at the elite public school, King’s College, Lagos, in the early 80s say he was such an affable and easy-going young lad. For the son of a notable army general of those days, he was particularly stood out for having no airs whatsoever. During one of the students’ elections he contested in he had made his colourful posters under the campaign moniker: VOTE TOY! Though an ‘A’ student (as most Kingsmen were those days), he was indeed toy-like in his mild-mannered nature and slim, gangling features.

    It may therefore not be surprising that OluyinkaOlufemiOlutoye turned out a physician for babies. But he is a doctor of babies of the uncommon kind; he is a pediatric surgeon with interest in wound care in adolescent and premature babies. He is also among the leading minds in the specialized field of pre-natal and fetal surgery.

    Olutoye who was the valedictorian of the class of 1988 of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria, where he earned his M.B.Ch.B honours degree in the university’s medical school is today celebrated for his remarkable feat last October in prenatal surgery.

    Leading a team of surgeons which included his partner Dr. Darrell Cass and medical experts, he successfully saved a foetus of a life-threatening danger of a growing tumour. The doctors brought the 23 weeks old baby out of the womb, removed a large tumour growing on her tailbone then returned the baby back to her mother’s womb to complete its full gestation period of nine months.

    The baby, LynleeBoemer, the subject of this historic feat has long been delivered and she lives as a healthful baby girl.

    In February last year, Dr.Olutoye was among the surgeons that successfully separated a set of conjoined twins, Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith Mata. A distinguished academic Professor of Surgery, Paediatrics and Obstetrics at Baylor College of Medicine, he has led several successful surgeries on other babies in the course of his practice.

    After the Lynlee procedure, he has been described as a “miracle worker operating where few have ever been before,” by NBC, the American broadcast network.

    Currently Co-director of Texas Children’s Foetal Centre;Olutoye earned his PhD in Anatomy from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, in 1996. He completed his residency in general surgery at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, Virginia Commonwealth University and his fellowship in paediatric surgery at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University ofPennsylvania, School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery in General Surgery and Paediatric Surgery.

    Highly regarded in American medical circles, he is a Fellow of the Surgical Section of the American Academy of Paediatrics; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons as well as member of several other medical and academic bodies including International Foetal Medicine and Surgery Society. He is also a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons.

    His research interests include understanding the role of foetal inflammatory response in scar-less foetal wound healing; development of animal models of congenital anomalies in utero-corrections in severe congenital malformations.

    In 2012, Dr.Olutoye was honoured with the Denton A. Cooley Surgical Innovator Award (Texas Children’s Hospital), he was also inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Educators (Baylor College of Medicine); he got the Molecular Surgeon Research Achievement Award and the Mark A. Wallace 2014 Catalyst Leader of the year Award. And this year, he was appointed Co-President of the International Foetal Medicine and Surgery Society. He is also Faculty Senator, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

    The distinguished professor has over the years excelled in the combined endeavours of medical practice, teaching and research, authoring (and co-authoring) over 60 academic publications in his fields of study.

    He and his wife, also a medical doctor, have two children.

  • Texas baby born twice: Prof Ojeniyi hails Oluyinka’s feat

    Texas baby born twice: Prof Ojeniyi hails Oluyinka’s feat

    Professor Ade Ojeniyi on Thursday joined the Federal Government and other well-wishers in commending the United State-based Nigerian Doctor, Oluyinka Olutoye for his amazing role in the delivery of a 23 week old baby at the Texas Children Hospital, Houston recently.

    Dr Olutoye of Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, USA was actively involved in the operation on Baby Lynlee Hope, who suffered from a tumour known as Sacrococcygeal Teratoma.

    Baby Hope was removed from her mother’s womb operated on and returned back. She healed and continued to grow until she was born again at 36 weeks.

    Dr Olutoye is Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Fetal Center and fetal surgery team member, as well as a general paediatric surgeon in USA.

    Dr Olutoye received his medical degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in 1988 and his PhD in anatomy from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, in 1996.

    He completed his residency in general surgery at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, Virginia Commonwealth University, and his fellowship in paediatric surgery at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pa.

    In addition, he is a member of the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society and is a Fellow of the Surgical Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Surgeons; he is also a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons.

    Prof Ojeniyi, who holds doctoral degrees in both veterinary and human medicine, observed that there are several Nigerian professionals in the diaspora who are doing excellently, especially in the health sector, who may not return home because of the factors that frustrates efforts and kill passion.

    The one-time Chief Physician and Government Medical Advisor to the Ministry of Health in Greenland praised Olutoye’s feat and advised all Nigerian Professionals, wherever they may be, to continue in doing their best as professionals that they really are.

    Professor Ojeniyi is a Visiting Professor of both Human Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, Center for Infectious Diseases at the gigantic Texas Medical Center in Houston.