The National Hospital, Abuja, has successfully carried out open heart surgeries on 12 children with heart diseases of varying complexities.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Jafaru Momoh, who disclosed this at a news briefing in Abuja today, said that six of the surgeries were conducted last Monday.
Dr. Momoh said that the hospital was able to carry out the surgeries through the collaboration of the Hospital for Humanity, a US-based NGO, under a seven-year collaborative contract agreement.
According to him, the latest six surgeries brought the total number of heart surgeries conducted by the hospital to 12.
“Earlier this year in August, we had the 1st set of open heart surgeries and this collaboration was to be a continuous one.
“This is to ensure that our core function of providing expert medical care is met and also to limit medical tourism.”
The chief medical director said that the collaboration would further enhance technology and skills transfer to local team of experts, thereby enabling sustainability of the programme in future.
The open heart surgery is a method of correcting the hole in the heart of people, among other medical complications.
Dr. Momoh called on Nigerians to avail themselves of the specialized facilities and services in the hospital to better their health, describing the hospital as the vanguard of medical provision in the country.
He said that such services include orthopaedics, that is, joint replacement surgeries, cancer treatment, spinal surgery and invitro fertilisation programme. [myad]
