He said it is important for Nigerians to know that there are now better trained medical experts particularly orthopaedic surgeons at many of the tertiary institutions in the country.
“For this reason we strongly encourage Nigerians with orthopaedic cases that they should no longer patronise the traditional bone setters as they rather compound and end up damaging these cases beyond repair,” he said.
Ikpeme said that there are many Nigerians who can no longer walk properly or make use of their hands any more because traditional bone setters were not able to fix the broken limbs.
The head of the UCTH casualty section cited the case of a particular young woman who had a fractured arm but was persuaded by her relations to patronise local bone-setters.
“After three months with the traditional bone-setters, she had to return to us with her arm in a very bad state. We are going to try our best to fix it.
“Unlike us, the traditional bone-setters don’t have the modern equipment, expertise and assorted medication that can attack viruses within the affected bones and specific drugs that can help nurture the bones to normalcy.
“Victims should therefore look for orthopaedic surgeons to fix their limbs”, he advised.
