Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
A total of 49 surgeries had been performed within the last five years during the 7th open heart missions for children in the National Hospital Abuja, the Chief Medical Director of National Hospital Abuja, Dr Jafaru Momoh has said.
Momoh said this while while receiving Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) who was there on the spot assessment of the medical team.
He said the surgeries was part of the voluntary service of Nigerians in the Diaspora in the health sector.
Momoh represented by Dr Aisha Umar, Director of Clinical Services explained that this is the second mission in 2019, adding the the first which was carried out in May had eight surgeries successfully done.
According to her the Hospital subsidised the cost of the surgeries from N500,000 to N2.5 million per child to support the voluntary services rendered by the diaspora.
She explained: “In the past five years, the medical team was able to train the local nurses, which had reduced the cost for them because they don’t have to travel with nurses again.”
The Medical Director disclosed that the team is not being paid for their services nor given accommodation, all they do was to thank them and give necessary logistics support.
She therefore appealed to other medical personnel in the diaspora to make out time and conduct outreaches in any way possible.
Dabiri-Erewa, in her remarks said the commission has been able to create the Diaspora Healthcare Initiative and thanked Dr Patrick Uwubanmwen (Chief Executive, Spem Quia Filii Foundation) who led the team of volunteers from United Kingdom.
The NIDCOM boss assured the team of Federal Government support, especially in the structure of the medical missions in Nigeria from the Diaspora and thanked the doctors for their selflessness, philanthropy, time and money towards the project.
Earlier, Uwubanmwen said his Foundation and that of Healing Little Heart Foundation has successfully carried out 1,900 surgeries in 28 medical missions across the world.
He said he was inspired to start the foundation because he lost a brother to a heart disease, saying that heart diseases killed more than malaria globally.
He said that the Healing Little Heart Foundation will be the first centre for children to receive open-heart surgery and hoping other geo- political zones will be able to replicate it, urging the government to support efforts to train the medical staff and increase their capacity.
Other members of the team include Dr Zeena Makhija, Consultant Cardiothoracic and Congenital Heart Disease, Dr Raghu Ramaah, Consultant Intensive Care (ITU),Dr Nadia, Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist and Dr Singuha Consultant Pediatric Cardiac Anesthetist.