By Chuks Collins, Awka
NO fewer than 18 beneficiaries requiring open heart surgeries have been lined up for this year’s medical mission of Sir Emeka Okwuosa Foundation (SEOF), which has already kicked off at the Dame Irene Okwuosa Memorial Hospital (DIOMH), Oraifite in Ekwusigo Local Council of Anambra State.
The intervention programme, which has become a yearly event since 2021, is the third to involve open heart surgeries and other critical areas of healthcare.
The arrival of DIOMH, a world class cardiology facility, on the scene in May 2022 as a flagship project of SEOF would carry out the surgeries on the 18 short-listed patients.
So far, 33 adults and children have benefited from the two such programmes sponsored by SEOF, in conjunction with America’s VOOM Foundation at the DIOMH Specialist Hospital in Oraifite.
This year’s edition was scheduled to run from May 14 to May 26 2023, with highly skilled medical experts in Cardiology, Nephrology, and Critical Care from VOOM Foundation, College Station in Texas, United States (US) supporting the necessary interventions.
DIOMH hit a healthcare milestone in Africa when it performed three open heart surgeries in a day and a total of 25 in less than two weeks during May 2022, at 70 per cent discount, while the remaining 30 per cent were between 14 and 20 per cent subsidised for those surgeries by Nigerian hospitals.
The total bill borne by SEOF for the 33 surgeries in 2022 was over N300million.
In the current mission, a Community Health Fair was organised by the Foundation on May 24, 2023 from 9am to 3pm to provide free treatment for diabetes, arthritis, malaria, hypertension, chronic pain, typhoid and eye care. Dispensing of drugs and clinical examinations was free.
Nigeria’s healthcare industry also recorded a big boost in March 2023, following the distribution of critical health intervention drugs worth N48million to medical facilities across the six geo-political zones in the country by SEOF.
