ITH successful open heart operations, the Afe Babalola University Multi-System Hospital is living up to its dream of reversing medical tourism and providing world class healthcare.
The major breakthrough has been described by the hospital’s founder Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) as “a memorable success in Nigeria’s medical trajectory”.
Babalola spoke Saturday evening at a ceremony held at the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti(ABUAD), marking the review of the “landmark” cardiovascular surgical operation.
The experts, led by Professors Tayo Adeleke and Paul Davies, United States-based cardiologists, disclosed that the operations were successful due to the dexterity of the medical personnel and highly sophisticated equipment in the hospital.
The team leader, Prof. Adeleke, advised that for the heart to be in good shape, there must be routine checks on blood pressure, which has been identified as the chief cause of heart failure globally.
Davies have successfully performed over 10,000 open heart surgeries in 21 years.
He added : “High blood pressure is a silent killer. It is 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, focus must be on health sector .
“High quality 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 ABUMSH with what we have seen. With this hospital, I don’t think there is need for medical tourism again in Nigeria.”
Chief Medical Director Prof. Ola Esan said the hospital was set up barely a year ago to educate students and to ensure the delivery of highest medical service and to stop continuous outflow of patients and money overseas.
He said the medical outfit has personnel and equipment to perform all forms of cardiovascular surgeries and other afflictions.
The equipment include, five modular theatres and six other theatre pneumatic tube system, most modern imaging equipment like 160 slice CT, 1.5 Tesla MRI, Bone Densitimeter, entuso mentor Digital X-rays and fluoroscopy and many modern ultrasound scan machines.
Others are the well-equipped cardiac centre, endoscopy equipment and view centres where students can watch operations on screens.
“The surgeries performed were done at a speed that had never been done before in Nigeria and in a manner comparable to how best it could be done anywhere across the globe.
Two of the beneficiaries, Mr Tayo Akomolafe, a surveyor and Dr. Bukola Balogun, were happy over the free health services they enjoyed at ABUMSH.
Akomolafe said: “I came from Lagos after I had been diagnosed of complex heart problem. I was taken to the theatre and after 30 minutes, things were okay with me.
“The equipment I saw were of the 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”.
Babalola, a foremost educationist, said Nigerian doctors and other professionals are “exceptionally brilliant” as their counterparts overseas, but were being hampered by the level of decadence in the system occasioned by dearth of equipment.
“It is sad that our people and hospitals are not well-equipped, they have no exposure to the right technology and that propelled me to establish this university to make up for the gap.
“So, my advice to the students is that, you must be ready to embrace the revolution we are pioneering here in ABUMSH.
“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.