2nd Anniversary: Hospital Performs 26 Successful Open Heart Surgeries

The Duchess International Hospital has performed 26 successful open-heart surgeries as it marks its second anniversary of providing affordable healthcare services to all Nigerians.

The CEO of Duchess International Hospital, Adetokunbo Shitta-Bey, disclosed this to newsmen over the weekend in Lagos during a press conference to mark the hospital’s anniversary.

Shitta-Bey affirmed that Duchess International Hospital is a metaphor for what Nigeria’s healthcare should be, adding, “The hospital speaks to what our country yearns for, which is to reverse medical tourism by delivering the highest standard of care using the most advanced technology and expertise. Our vision is to become Africa’s favorite hospital and an international healthcare provider they can trust, and we have been able to achieve that by providing quality healthcare services to Africans at an affordable price over the past two years.”

Shitta-Bey said the hospital’s goal is to give back to society. “To make that happen, we have partnered with Save A Heart Foundation to bring Nigerians in the public sector who have been on the waiting list for life-saving heart surgery into the private sector to benefit from the world-class equipment at Duchess International Hospital. For the past few weeks, we were able to assist about 12 patients who were on the waiting list at a public hospital, and it could have taken up to six months to get to their turn. We successfully performed open-heart surgeries on them at a very affordable cost. By the end of today, we would have, in this hospital, performed 26 life-saving open-heart surgeries,” he said.

Regarding moving healthcare forward in Nigeria, the CEO said that would require Public-Private Partnership (PPP), adding that “There must be collaboration between the private sector and the public sector. There must be the political will to make it work, and together, we can make it happen.”

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Recall that at the celebration of the hospital’s one-year anniversary, the CEO made a bold statement by reducing the cost of registration at Duchess International Hospital to N5,000 so that every person on the street can benefit from the world-class facility. “As we clocked two years today, our message to Nigerians is that we have a responsibility to give back to society, and that is what we intend to continue to do,” he affirmed.

In the same vein, the chairman of the Duchess Hospital Board of Directors, Dr. Adeyemi Onabowale, applauded the entire team of the hospital and Save A Heart Foundation, while disclosing that the heavy lifting of the surgery was done by Nigerian surgeons at Duchess International Hospital.

He affirmed that the days of operating in isolation are over, as collaboration between the public, private, and international organizations is needed to boost Nigerian healthcare. Renowned Cardiac Surgeon, Prof. Bode Falase, lauded Duchess International Hospital for the successful open-heart surgeries, while calling on Nigerians who may want to undergo heart surgery to patronize the hospital that offers affordable and world-class treatments. “You don’t need to travel abroad, as we can do it here at Duchess International Hospital,” he advised.

The director of Save a Heart Foundation in Nigeria, Mr. Onyekwelu Nzewi, revealed that diseases that affect the arteries, which are the blood vessels that bring oxygen-rich blood from the heart to all of your body’s cells, are on the rise and becoming endemic in Nigeria. “Some of us have had relatives suddenly slump. In Nigeria, we are stressed out, and heart diseases also come with aches and pains. Sadly, most Nigerians present late. I, therefore, urge Nigerians to see a cardiologist if they have chest pain and/or are always feeling tired,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the beneficiaries of the open-heart surgery initiative, Mrs. Gbemisola Oladiran, while sharing her ordeal with LEADERSHIP, disclosed that she never knew she had a cardiac disease until she almost passed out while planning a party for her children. “I had to go to the hospital because I was having severe headaches all the time. I was requested to do an Electrocardiography (ECG), and I was diagnosed with a heart condition. We called Dr. Falase, who told us to come to Lagos. That was how I was selected as one of the beneficiaries of this partnership. I want to thank Duchess International Hospital and Save A Heart Foundation for giving me a second chance at life. If we were to do this surgery in a private hospital, it would have cost us N8 million to N9 million. We don’t have that kind of money. So you can imagine the joy on my face when Dr. Falase called us to share this opportunity with us. We did the open-heart surgery for N3 million here at Duchess International Hospital,” she revealed.