ABUTH to carry out first open heart surgery

The Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) is to carry out its first open heart surgery by end of September, the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Prof.
Lawal Khalid has said.
Prof. Khalid told journalists yesterday in Zaria that ABUTH will soon establish a linear treatment centre for advanced radiation treatment of cancer patients, to cater for the high number of cancer patients it receives from across the country.
Professor Khalid said the upcoming operation was the culmination of several years of careful planning and upgrade of the infrastructural and human capacity of the hospital.
According to him, ABUTH was conducting the operation in collaboration with the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNNTH) which is a national centre for open heart surgery in the country, and a university in Ghana.
He said ABUTH has set up a cardiothoracic centre with a state of the art facility to carry out the open heart surgery, noting that it will be the first time that an open heart surgery would be conducted in the northern part of the country.
The CMD explained that:”As a Centre of Excellence for Oncology treatment, ABU teaching hospital is at the verge of establishing a linear treatment centre for advanced radiation treatment of cancer patients.” He said the hospital receives between 1,500 to 1,800 new cases of cancer every year, “and we are committed to ensuring that we give our patients the best possible treatment available to mitigate their pains where we cannot cure them.” Speaking on the challenge of the hospital, the CMD said the hospital lacked basic diagnostic equipment like CT scan, poor funding for overhead costs among other challenges.