‘80,000 babies born with heart defect annually’

The Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Nigeria has raised alarm over the number of children dying from heart diseases.

The President of the Association, Dr. Uvie Onakpoya made the lamentation at a press conference held at the Cardiovascular centre of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto after successfully operating two children with heart problems on Saturday.

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He said that, 80,000 babies were born with heart problems in Nigeria every year.

“80,000 children are born with heart defect every year in Nigeria but only 200 access or afford medication. Only God knows what happened to the rest,”he said

According to him, COVID-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise in the country as it forced our tertiary hospitals to embark on opened heart surgeries without a foreign support.

“Before the pandemic we rely on the support of foreign partners to conduct open heart surgery, but since the outbreak, our tertiary hospitals, especially in the South perform routine open heart surgeries successfully.

“So we can say that, the pandemic is a blessing in disquise,” he said

Dr. Onakpoya however stated that, there was no reason whatsoever for any Nigeria to travel abroad for heart surgery because it could be done at home and at the cheapest price.

“We have the equipment and well trained personnel that conduct the operation at affordable price,” he said.

He however, lamented that, in the whole northern region, there was no hospital that could perform a routine open heart surgery, noting that, this was the first of many mission coming to Sokoto until the team in Sokoto could perform a routine surgery without any support.

He appealed to the federal government to remove doctors from its blanket policy, banning its workers from oversea training.

“We need routine training to be able to compete with our colleagues elsewhere. Even doctors in developed countries like America go for training in other countries to learn modern ways of treating patients,” he said

The immediate past President of the Association, Dr. Bode Falase said that, open heart surgery cannot be free.

“The best thing we can do is to make it affordable,” he said

The head of the Cardiovascular centre of UDUTH, Dr. Abubakar Umar, said that, this was the first mission conducted in the hospital without any foreign support.

He said that, the cardiologists that participated in the mission were from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife.