September 16, (THEWILL) – The University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) has undertaken its first ever open-heart surgery.
This was disclosed by the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Ikpeme A Ikpeme, a professor of Orthopaedics.
He said the patient received a mitral valve replacement following six and a half hours of surgery.
According to him the successful surgery is a culmination of two years of hard work, determination, sacrifice, vision and focus at different levels of the hospital.
He said the hospital signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Open Heart Surgery Missions with the VOOM Foundation sometime in 2015.
This was later reviewed with the Foundation in July/August 2019 and UCTH made a commitment to actualise the programme and domesticate open-heart surgery in the hospital.
The CMD said, “We have had to construct a new Theatre Suite using in-house Engineering and Technical teams, we had to create a multidisciplinary Heart Surgery Team.
“We had to clear 2Nos 40ft containers from Onne Port, Port Harcourt and invest in equipment worth millions of naira (heart-lung machine, heater-cooler interexchange system, cell savers, high-end anaesthetic machine, high end monitors, defibrillator with Internal pads, ventilators, digital mobile x ray system, etc).
“As far as I know, we are the first tertiary health institution in South-South Nigeria to accomplish this, and join a group of very few elite centres nationwide.”
He added that the hospital is offering these surgeries at 30 percent of their actual cost and commended his team for working in concert to achieve this feat.
He also thanked the VOOM Foundation for partnering with the hospital, stressing that they will continue working with them while looking forward to the day it will be a routine procedure by an all-UCTH team.=
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
