The University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, has so far, performed 108 open heart surgeries since the services resumed in 2013 after 10 years of being suspended.
The Chief Medical Director, CMD, of the hospital, Dr Christopher Amah, made this known said that such surgeries would henceforth be performed regularly to reduce medical tourism abroad and save foreign exchange for the country.
According to him, the latest surgery was performed in the hospital on one Chiaha Chinyere, 25, adding that it started at about 8.35 am and ended by 11.32 am.
Chinyere was treated for mitral-valve disease, MVD, leading to the replacement of his mitral- valve, MVR.
Amah further said that the hospital started performing open heart surgeries with mainly foreign doctors pointing out, however, that "these days 80 perc ent of the team of medical personnel are Nigerians."
The foreign doctor, Vikram Aerra Parlapelly who led the team that treated Chinyere was assisted by a doctor in the hospital, Nwafor Akpan with other Nigerian nurses.
Other patients, who were recovering after their open heart operations in the hospital, told South East Voice that the symptoms included swollen legs, inability to climb upstairs and fast breathing.
Those who spoke on their hospital beds included John Okafor, 59, (from Onitsha), Peter Ibeneme and Rose Nwafor, 57, from Arondizogu, Imo State.
However, the CMD further said that the cost of an open heart surgery was about N2.5 million but stressed that those assisted by Rotary International paid only N300,000 while others who came through the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, paid N1.5 million.
On water and electricity in the hospital, Amah said that 13 new borehole projects were started out of which seven had been completed. He also said that the two sets of 350 KVA transformers were dedicated to the cardiac unit in the hospital as electricity was not expected to go off during delicate operations.
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