UCH celebrates first bloodless open heart surgery

 

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals yesterday celebrated the first Coronary Artery By Pass Gland (CABG) Open Heart Surgery carried out at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The surgery was done without blood transfusion with the aid of a Cardiac Capitalisation Machine made by Toshiba, which was acquired by the hospital in 2011. The machine was installed and put to use last year.

At UCH yesterday, health workers, led by the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Temitope Alonge, celebrated the achievement.

National President of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals Dr. Felix Olukayode Faniran described the feat as “a great breakthrough”.

Speaking at the School of Nursing Auditorium in UCH at a symposium on: “The Nigerian Health Sector: Politics, Policy and Practice”, organised by the union, Faniran said: “The essence of this symposium is to examine health care practices in the country. One of them is what you heard Alonge say. He said they just had a breakthrough in open heart surgery at UCH.”

Alonge said the concept of open heart surgery was not new in Nigeria, adding that the process to resuscitate the procedure started last year at UCH.

He said the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu was the first institution to embark on open heart surgery, but the challenges have always been that of equipment, manpower and the ability to sustain it.

Alonge said: “UCH acquired the Cardiac Capitalisation Machine by Toshiba in 2011 and it was installed and put to use in 2013. That allows us to evaluate the state of the arteries supplied by the heart muscles and if, for any reason, there is blockage at the same sitting, the blood vessels can be opened up with the ballon. If the damage is extensive, such that we cannot do the ballon and geo-plasty, then we resort to open heart surgery.

“This technically means that the chest will be split into two. The heart is exposed; the blood entering and leaving the heart is diverted into a machine called the heart-lung machine and we stop the heart. So, technically, the person is dead and the blood will be going through the machine and going back into the patient as repair work is carried out on the heart. After that, we wake the heart up again.

“We conduct our open heart surgery at a subsidised rate of N1.5 million as against N2.5 million in Ghana, so Nigerians do not need to travel abroad again for operation in heart-related diseases.”

The CMD said the hospital was launching an endowment fund to assist indigent patients that need open heart surgery.

Wife of the Oyo State Governor, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi, congratulated UCH on the success of its Cardiac Catherisation Procedure and Open Heart Surgery.

Mrs. Ajimobi praised the cardiology team and its partners – Tri-state Cardiovascular Associate, Delaware and the Babcock University- for their efforts to save lives.

Speaking at the inauguration of the UCH Intervention Cardiology Programme, she said as a friend and partner of UCH, she understands the enormous work done by the team and appreciates it.

Mrs. Ajimobi said the good health of every resident is a priority of the state government, adding that she values the partnership between her foundation, the Access to Basic medical Care (ABC), and UCH.

She said she would continue to provide free qualitative health care services to residents through the ABC clinics and pledged her continued support to UCH.

Leader of the Tri-State Cardiovascular Associate, Delware, Dr Kamar Adeleke, said over 200 children in the state need Cardiac Catherisation Procedure and Open Heart Surgery.

SOURCE: www. thenationonlineng.net