Did Obi sponsor the first black female to perform a heart surgery?

A certain KanuBonaventure tweeted on January 7, 2023 that an Igbo girl was sponsored by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who performed heart surgery in 30 minutes.

The tweet has gotten over 5k retweets and 18k likes. This reaction proves that the tweet has gone viral, especially for an account with less than 500 followers.

The handler of the page stated that an Igbo girl that was sent to England on scholarship by presidential candidate Peter Obi becomes the first black girl to transplant a heart into another human within 30 minutes.

The tweet reads: “Chiamaka a 20 years old Igbo girl that Peter Obi sends to England on free scholarship grand(sic), has become the first black girl to transplant a heart into another human in 30 minutes.”

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Verdict: False and misleading

Verification

Checks by Daily Trust showed that this tweet is false. The student in the picture was not Chiamaka but Wuraola, a graduate of Ternopil National Medical University, Ukraine. Wuraola did not attend school in the UK.

Wuraola (with the Twitter handle lifeofcandace), in a quoted tweet, debunked KanuBonaventure’s tweet by quoting a picture she took years ago and said she recently completed her undergraduate programme, and her education was sponsored by her parents.

“My name is Wuraola. I took this picture years ago in medical school. I recently completed my undergraduate programme at Ternopil National Medical University, Ukraine. My parents sponsored my education. It’s hilarious because the man is doing a disservice to Peter Obi,” she said.

This statement was made after her friends called her attention to the tweet in the comments section. The comment section of the tweet had a large number of people attacking the page handler for being dishonest in an effort to advocate for his candidate.

There is no verification that the supposed Chiamaka is in the group photograph attached to the tweet by KanuBonaventure.

Further checks from a medical practitioner named Khalil-ur-Rahman Abdullah, said there’s no specific duration for a heart transplant; Reason being that there are numerous factors that can litigate the process. He said it can’t be less than four hours.

He further said that a heart transplant is a rare surgery even in developed countries. It’s a technical process and requires technical and multidisciplinary specialists.

He added that it is unrealistic and impossible to perform a heart transplant in 30 minutes as claimed in the tweet.

Another medical practitioner, Dr Dapo Fashina, who works at the Nigerian Navy Hospital, told Daily Trust that due to the complexity and rigidity of a heart transplant, it is impossible to achieve a successful surgery in 30 minutes.

“A heart transplant will take about six hours or more due to its complexity. It’s impossible to achieve that in 30 minutes,” he said. 

Conclusion

Neither did Peter Obi sponsor a certain Chiamaka to England, nor is Chiamaka the first female surgeon to perform heart surgery in 30 minutes; as such, the claim is false.