NISA Hospital Records First Open Heart Surgery

By John Emmanuel, Abuja

Executive Vice Chairman, Nisa Premier Hospital, Dr. Ibrahim Wada, has said that Nigeria can attain self-sufficiency in medical health care if government can effectively harness the nation’s opportunities and provide modern healthcare facilities for Nigerian Doctors to operate.
Dr. Wada stated this at the celebration of the first open heart surgery at the hospital in Abuja as part of its corporate social responsibility. The exercise, carried out by a team of four Nigerian surgeons led by Dr. Elijah Miner, operated on four children with various heart complications, free of charge.

While expressing his gratitude to the team of surgeons for volunteering to contribute to humanity and the development of the Nigerian health sector, Dr. Wada also expressed the confidence that with adequate government funding of the Nigerian health sector, medical tourism abroad will drastically be curtailed.

The lead surgeon, Dr. Miner, called for partnership from government and corporate bodies to ensure the sustainability of the initiative in order to check medical tourism and saving the lives of poor Nigerians who cannot afford the cost of heart surgery.
Dr. Miner, who puts the average cost of having a heart surgery to be between N1million to N1.5 million depending on the nature of surgery required, said the project which is the first of its kind carried out wholly by Nigerian surgeons, hope to train more surgeons in open heart surgery as a step towards advancing the Nigerian medical capacity.
A member of the team, Dr. Michael Tosin Sanusi, a Cardio-thoracic surgeon trained in Atlanta-USA, urged the federal government to legislate an all-encompassing health insurance law that would primarily be aimed at taking care of the less privilege in the society.
By so doing, he said access to quality medical care will not only be an exclusive for the high and mighty in the society but for all Nigerians who die daily of ailment they cannot afford to treat.
Beneficiaries, while speaking to newsmen, expressed gratitude to the management of NISA Premier hospital for coming to their aid.