The Afe Babalola University Multi-system Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti (ABUTH) has broken an unprecedented record in Nigeria by emerging the first hospital to carry out, successfully, an open heart surgery, in collaboration with some foreign partners.
The hospital achieved the ground-breaking development between Thursday and Friday last week and revealed it on Saturday evening at a ceremony held at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti(ABUAD), which marked the review of the landmark and successful cardiovascular surgical operations.
During the event, the team of experts, led by Professors Tayo Adeleke and Paul Davies, US-based cardiologists, revealed that they were successful with operations carried out on all patients because of the of state-of-the- art medical equipment available at the hospital and a team of determined medical personnel. He added that the medical equipment were the best available anywhere in the world.
The team leader, Prof. Adeleke, advised that for the heart to be in good shape, all Nigerians must conduct a routine check on their blood pressure, which has been identified as the chief cause of heart failure globally.
Adeleke added that the experts from the US have successfully performed over 10,000 open-heart surgeries for a period of 21 years.
He said: “High blood pressure is a silent killer. It the major cause of kidney failure, heart failure and sudden death among our population.
“The Life expectancy in Cuba is 81, that of USA is 80, so for Nigeria, which life expectancy is less than 50 to get to that level, the focus must be on the health sector.
” Good equipment and personnel must be provided in our hospitals, the way Chief Afe Babalola has done in ABUTH.
“You can get quality health delivery here in ABUTH with what we have seen. With this hospital, I don’t think there is a need for medical tourism again outside Nigeria.”
The founder of the 400-bed hospital, Chief Afe Babalola(SAN), described the breakthrough as a celebration of a memorable success in the medical history of the country.
Saluting the experts, Babalola added that Nigerian doctors and other professionals are as brilliant as their counterparts overseas, but are being underutilized by the level of decadence in the system occasion by the paucity of equipment.
“It is sad that our people and hospitals are not well-equipped; they have no exposure to the right technology and that was why I established this university to make up for the gap.
“So, my advice to the students is that they must be ready to embrace the revolution we are pioneering here in ABUTH.
“We are partnering some hospitals in Sao Paulo, Brazil, India, Germany, and Dubai to expose our students to better training in the course of being here ,” he said.
The Chief Medical Director of the ABUAD’s hospital, Prof. Ola Esan, said the hospital was set up barely a year ago to educate students and to ensure the delivery of the highest medical service and to stop the continuous outflow of patients and money overseas.
He said the medical facility has the personnel and equipment to perform all forms of cardiovascular surgeries and other afflictions.
“The surgeries performed were done with a speed that had never been done before in Nigeria and in a manner comparable to how best it could be done anywhere across by the globe.
Two of the beneficiaries, Mr Tayo Akomolafe and Dr. Bukola Balogun, expressed happiness over the free health services they enjoyed at ABUTH.
Akomolafe said: “I came from Lagos after I had been diagnosed with a complex heart problem. I was taken to the theatre and after 30 minutes, things were okay with me.
“The equipment I saw were state-of-the art status and can compare with what you can get anywhere and my advice is that Nigerians should not go abroad for medical treatment, you can get it here in Ado Ekiti”