Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, is officially one of the hospitals in Nigeria that offer kidney transplant services.
On Thursday, the first successful kidney transplant was carried out in the hospital on a 56-year-old man.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Wale Oke, said the successful kidney transplant was part of the state government’s promise to deliver excellent healthcare services to the people of Lagos State. He added that several consultations were made before the surgery to make sure that the patients were well selected to avoid complications after the exercise.
He said: “But thank God today, both the donor and recipient are in sound health.”
The elated CMD said:
“LASUTH has come of age and we are glad. We are able to harness what we have and so we will continue to improve on infrastructure. Kidney transplant is not free; it cannot be free, but with us doing it here, the cost will be affordable (compared to traveling to India or United Kingdom for operation).”
The Chief Medical Director assured Lagosians that the hospital will continue to bring excellent and special services at the hospital.
The leader of the transplant team, a Consultant Nephrologist, Dr. Jacob Awobusuyi, said the initiative was conceived three years ago.
He said that the latest of several services offered in the hospital would help stop the trend of patients going to India and returning with complications that often eventually kill them.
He also said that both the 56-year-old recipient and the 26-year-old donor expressed concern before the surgery but that they were both relieved and happy after the successful operation.
