Garki Hospital Performs First Heart Surgery Says it’s proof PPP is working 15 Jul 2013 Font Size: a / A  Garki Hospital By Patrick Ugeh With the successful surgical operation performed on a two-and-a-half-year old Joanna Enahoro, suffering a congenital heart condition, at the weekend, operators of Garki General Hospital, Abuja, have said the road is now open for them to carry out more of such surgeries and even more complex ones at costs cheaper than in private hospitals in the country and any health facility abroad. Addressing journalists, who witnessed the operation at the end of the two-hour operation, the Group Medical Adviser, Dr. Ibrahim Wada, said the feat showed that Public-Private Partnership (PPP) was the way for the country to go. Wada was flanked by Drs. Elijah Miner, the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, and Adetola Talabi, a US-based consultant along with over a dozen professionals that took part in the operation. Garki General Hospital, now concessioned to Nisa Hospital, Abuja, owned by Dr. Ibrahim Wada, unde a PPP arrangement could not perform the cardio-vascular operation when the disease was first diagnosed until the equipment were acquired early this year. With the successful operation which he said was done at a financial loss to the hospital, Miner said they would continue making sacrifices to ensure that patients continue to receive such services at a cost not more than what they would pay for the removal of appendicitis or hernia. “We will continue suffering some financial losses until government or some organisations or individuals come to assist us,” he added. “What has happened is a small step,” Miner said, “but we hope to bring more success stories and do more complex cases.” Talabi, a heart anaesthesiologist, said: “We want to make Garki hospital a centre of reference for all major vessels. “By year-end, we will start bigger heart cases... Nobody needs to travel again above the Niger because of cardio-vascular problems. We will spread ourselves across the country.” One of a set of twins, Joanna Enahoro, who weighed a mere 770 grams (as against the normal weight of around 1.5 kilogrammes), had been living a life of torment from birth, making her growth stunted, compared to her twin, as a result of the heart condition known as Ligation of PDA suffered mainly by pre-term babies. Her parents, Mr and Mrs Enahoro, had planned to take her to India for the corrective surgery by last December as her health care provider, Garki General Hospital, where she was born, didn’t have the equipment then. However, for some reasons, the Enahoros changed their mind about taking the baby to India. Now, having acquired the needed equipment, Garki General Hospital invited some Nigerian experts in the diaspora to join hands with them to perform the operation. Tags: Nigeria, Featured, News, Garki Hospital
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 23:19:50 +0000
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