•CMD: we plan to operate on 100 patients yearly
The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, has conducted open heart surgeries for seven persons with cardiac problems (hole in the heart).
The hospital said the surgery, which costs N1.7 million per patient, was subsidised by its partners.
It said Nigerians no longer need to travel abroad to seek treatment for the disease.
Besides, 10 patients would benefit from the gesture, which is still ongoing.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Christopher Bode, assured that open heart surgery will be a routine at LUTH.
He said: “We want to make open heart surgery regular at LUTH. By next year, we hope to have achieved 100 cases of successful cardiac surgeries. We call on Nigerians to come and sponsor what we are doing. We want to give Nigerians high class treatment at a low price.
“Our charges are as low as N1.7 million for this surgery, compared to the millions they spend travelling abroad for treatment, transportation and cost of feeding, among others. We call on all Nigerians to believe in us and what we do.”
He said the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) sponsored a patient for the surgery because of its belief in LUTH.
“Moreover, NHIS also donated ventilators to us for the surgery”.
Bode continued: “This gesture made the cost of treatment cheaper. We will be conducting another open heart surgery in the next 60 days. Now, we are screning some patients who require surgery”.
NHIS Zonal Director, Mr Awala Ebijuwa, represented by the Head Standard and Quality Assurance, Lagos Zonal Office, Dr. Abraham Bethuel-Kasimu, said the aim of NHIS was to make health insurance available to the people, thereby mitigating the rising cost of health care.
LUTH Cardiac Project’s chairman, Prof. Jane Ajuluchukwu said: “The first set of open heart surgery in LUTH was conducted in 2014. We operated on three patients and it was successful. Now we have moved higher to seven patients, making 10 patients in total. We have collaborations at international levels. It is multidisciplinary, so we had about 10 disciplines that came together to make sure this was a success.”
The Coordinator Cardiac Unit (LUTH), Dr. Olugbenga Olusoji, said: “In the past Nigerians never had access to cardiac surgical services but LUTH acquired the expertise and machineries to make this possible. We hope that that in the next one year, LUTH will be known for cardiac surgeries and will become a referral centre.”
On how to prevent hole in the heart, Consultant pediatrician, Dr. Ekanem Ekure said: “Expectant mothers or women in child bearing age should take folic acid regularly. This will help to prevent some birth defects. There is no clear cause of hole in the heart but there are some factors that can trigger it. They include genetics like diseases passed from mother to child. Babies with Down syndrome are prone to hole in the heart. Rubella is a viral sickness caused by rubella virus. It looks like measles or rashes. Some expectant mothers think having rubella is not a sickness but it is actually a sickness which must be treated or else it may cause hole in the heart and deafness for the baby”.
Ekure continued: “Babies may have hole in the heart if their mothers are diabetic. Smoking and alcohol during pregnancy may trigger hole in the heart”.
Speaking to a beneficiary, a mother whose baby was diagnosed with hole in the heart at 18 months old, Mrs Dayo Owolabi, from Ikorodu, thanked LUTH for successful surgery on her son.
She said: “It was not easy raising money for treatment of three-year-old son, Damilola.
