Reddington hospital records landmark achievement in medicine

…performs Nigeria’s first device closure of a hole in the heart by non surgical intervention

Another landmark achievement in the field of medicine has been recorded by Reddington Hospital as it has recorded successfully pioneered Nigeria’s First devised closure of the hole in the heart (Patent Ductus Arteriousis) by non surgical invention on Victoria Onuoha, a three year old child.

Making this known to journalists at its Victoria Island office yesterday, Olu Lawani, acting Medical Director, Reddington Hospital said that the achievement was made possible following an intense collaboration by a team of doctors at the Reddington hospital and Lagos State College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), who were supported by cardiac physiologists, cardiac technicians, nurses and biomedical engineers in the spirit of public private partnership.

Olu Lawani revealed that PDA, a congential heart disease (CHD) commonly seen in early childhood, is a condition where the hole in the heart fails to close at birth for various reasons. He noted that while the diagnosis of the three year old child was made in LASUTH 2 years ago, there equipment for conducting such non surgical procedure wasn’t available in Nigeria as the family wasn’t able to muster the financial resources to go abroad.

In his words “the deviced closure of PDA is a common procedure carried out Europe, America, and some developing nations like India and South Africa. We are aware that one of the major challenges in treating CHD us the overall cost of carrying out the procedure, availability of high tech equipment, lot of consumables and devices that were procured from abroad at a huge cost. That is why Edensfield Health Foundation, a non-governmental organisation paid for the procurement of the device that was sourced from abroad.

Depending on the complexity of the disease, it costs between $500 to $5000 to purchase the device for the surgery. As a contribution to this landmark event, the management of the hospital took a decision to wave our charges regarding this patient in our facility. We hope the new low price regime would be effective from January 2011.”

Lending her view, Adeola Animashaun, consultant paediatrician cardiologist, LASUTH, who was part of the team that conducted the surgery, disclosed that this landmark achievement by Reddington Hospital has been used all over the world. Animashaun noted that the advantage of this process is that it has shorter procedure time, shorter hospital stay and no scar for the patient.

According to her “up till now, the only way this cardiac abnormality has been treated in Nigeria is through very complex surgery that involves cutting up the chest cage (ribs and sternum) to be able to have access to the heart before the procedure for the closure of the hole can be carried out. This is usually followed up with long post operative intensive care and hospital stay with its attendant moderate mortality.”

With the feat achieved by this hospital, the healthcare delivery system should be revamped to ensure that tertiary institutions are equipped with adequate facilities for various medical issues as well as capacity development. This is the long run will see endear the country to in medical tourism which countries like India, United States of America, and other countries in Europe enjoy.