Bauchi hospital conducts first hip replacement on woman

The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi has conducted hip replacement surgery on a woman with medical challenges.

One of the surgeons who carried out the operation on the patient, Dr Ibrahim Shaphat Shuaibu of the facility’s orthopaedic department disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Blueprint Tuesday, stating that the surgery was successfully conducted on Mrs Rabiatu Usman last Friday, July 25.

“We were able to do total hip replacement in this hospital; meaning we had to operate her and change her hip entirely. And this is the first of its kind in this hospital.

“The surgery is actually an expensive procedure; it is above a million naira. I think one of the challenges of many of our patients is the affordability and the ability to pay for the kind of procedure,” he revealed.

The consultant orthopaedic surgeon said, before the latest surgery, the hospital had been doing partial replacement surgeries on patients with problems with their hips, noting that the first total hip replacement conducted will add steam to the medical facility in terms of specialised operations and treatment.

Speaking on the operation, Dr Shuaibu said said the exercise took the team of surgeons four hours on the woman to replace the problematic hip.

Shuaibu said the patient had not been able to walk for a long time before the surgery, adding that hopefully, Mrs Usman will be able to walk normally in the next couple of weeks.

He called on people having similar problems in the country to come to the hospital in order to benefit from such specialised care.

“We want to tell people that the orthopaedic unit in the teaching hospital here in Bauchi is robust and that we have the specialists and capable hands on ground to be able to undertake these specialised procedures. We hope that the message will get to people with this kind of problem that needed this kind of solution,” he said.

The doctor, who claimed that the artificial hip joint inserted in the woman is movable and functional like the natural one, said it could work smoothly for a period of 20 to 30 years in young people before another surgery would be conducted and could last till death for the aged.

He recommended the consumption of foods that have calcium such as milk, fish and egg as part of measures for one to boost the strength of his bones.

Also responding to Blueprint in her hospital bed, tRabiatu Usman, a resident of Tudun Salmanu quarters in the state capital, said she developed the problem since childhood.

Rabiatu further revealed that she consulted various public and private hospitals in the state and beyond in search of solution but to no avail until she finally came to the teaching hospital.

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