Duchess Hospital Ikeja Marks Second Anniversary With Subsidised Affordable Open-Heart Surgery

Mary Nnah

As part of events leading up to the second anniversary of the Duchess International Hospital, the hospital recently embarked on a week-long cardiac surgery mission aimed at delivering subsidised, affordable “open-heart surgery” to a total of nine patients with a variety of life-threatening heart diseases who would not otherwise have been able to afford the full cost of complex heart surgery.

Speaking at a press conference to commemorate the event, Chief Executive Officer of the Duchess International Hospital, Dr Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, said the Duchess has been working on this landmark initiative in collaboration with Friends of Nigeria Save-A-Heart Foundation, United Kingdom.

He explained that the combined team of 22 highly trained and experienced specialist professionals comprising cardiac perfusionists, theatre practitioners, intensive care nurses, cardiac anaesthetists and interventional cardiologists was made up of 11 highly skilled professionals from the Duchess International Hospital and 11 members of the Save-A-Heart Foundation visiting team from the United Kingdom.

The Chief Executive reiterated the hospital’s mission to reverse medical tourism and its commitment to institutional collaboration and cooperation to achieve good patient outcomes and global standards of evidence-based practice

According to the Duchess Hospital Chief Executive, the hospital is working closely with institutions and professionals globally to attract the “brightest and the best” talent to offer their expertise to Nigeria, while at the same time investing in training and development to build capacity locally for the benefit of patients at home.

“This is one of the ways in which we are offering global best practice in medical services right here in Nigeria while at the same time reducing medical tourism and capital flight”, Shitta-Bey, said.   

Speaking at the event, the head of the UK medical mission, Dr Onyii Nzewi said Save-A-Heart Foundation is pleased to collaborate with Duchess International Hospital to provide affordable open-heart surgery to restore hope and bring smiles to numerous individuals and families who have lived with the effects of complex heart disease and cardiovascular conditions for a very long time.

Nzewi commended the management of Duchess Hospital, Ikeja for providing a world-class medical environment for Nigerians. He remarked that the team, working with their counterparts at the Duchess International Hospital, was able to achieve this landmark objective through a combination of highly skilled expertise and cutting-edge medical infrastructure available specifically for cardiac surgery at the Duchess International Hospital.

Led by the Professor of Cardiac Surgery and Coordinator of the Duchess Cardiac Surgery Programme, Dr Bode Falase and Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast and founder of the Save-A-Heart Foundation, Dr Onyii Nzewi, the combined team successfully performed a total of nine open heart surgery procedures, each lasting several hours, over five days.

Commenting on Save-A-Heart Foundation’s highly successful collaboration with the Duchess International Hospital, Falase said the partnership has helped tremendously to foster collaboration across medical institutions both within and outside Nigeria. He commended the team for their professionalism and congratulated them on achieving a hitch-free cardiac surgery programme with a success rate of 100 per cent.

Some of the beneficiaries of the programme who spoke at the media event expressed their appreciation to Duchess International Hospital and Save-A-Heart Foundation for providing them with the opportunity to live a normal life again.