Thursday, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, became one of the hospitals in Nigeria that offers kidney transplant services following a successful kidney transplant on a 56-year- old man in Lagos.
The life-saving procedure which took two and half hours was the first of its in LASUTH.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Wale Oke, said the successful kidney transplant was part of the state governmentโs promises to deliver excellent healthcare services to the people of Lagos State. He added that several consultations were made before the surgery to make sure that the patients were well selected to avoid complications after the exercise.
He said: โBut thank God today, both the donor and recipient are in sound health,”
Oke explained that the patient, who was at the end-stage renal disease, was selected for the maiden surgery, and after about six-hour surgery (organ harvesting and implantation), the operation was successful.
The elated CMD said:
โLASUTH has come of age and we are glad. We are able to harness what we have and so we will continue to improve on infrastructure. Kidney transplant is not free; it cannot be free, but with us doing it here, the cost will be affordable (compared to traveling to India or United Kingdom for operation).โ
The Chief medical Director assured Lagosians that the hospital will continue to bring excellent and special services at the hospital.
The leader of the transplant team, a Consultant Nephrologist, Dr. Jacob Awobusuyi, said the initiative was conceived three years ago.
He said that the latest of several services offered in the hospital would help stop the trend of patients going to India and returning with complications that often eventually kill them.
Awobusuyi, said that the patient, who is still recuperating in the ward, had to be persuaded to have the operation here in Nigeria instead of India.
So after a year of dialysis, the patient came up with his nephew as a donor which made LASUTH medical team start the operation.
He said that both the 56 year old recipient and the 26-year-old donor expressed concern before the surgery but that they were both relieved and happy after the successful operation.
