A team of Nigerian surgeons with Kindred Health Surgical Foundation’s intervention has commenced a week-long free surgical intervention at the Noma Children’s Hospital, Sokoto, targeting indigent patients with severe head and neck conditions.
The intervention aims to perform complex reconstructive surgeries, procedures that ordinarily cost between ₦350,000 and ₦500,000, at no charge to patients.
The Chief Medical Director of Noma Children’s Hospital, Dr. Abubakar Abdullahi Bello, said the programme would provide life-changing surgeries to patients who could never afford such care.
“Some of these surgeries are very expensive. In other facilities, they could request ₦300,000 to ₦400,000 for this kind of surgery. But here, they get it free of charge, without paying a penny,” Bello said.
He explained that the hospital provides the operating theatre, wards, and laboratory support while the foundation handles the cost of surgery, personnel, and post-operative care.
Most of the beneficiaries are children affected by Noma disease, a condition that destroys the soft tissues of the face, leaving victims disfigured and stigmatised.
The initiative, the first of its kind at the facility, is expected to create wider awareness and eventually enable regular surgical outreach programmes.
“We already have records of patients who cannot afford surgery. With this partnership, we invite foundations to screen and operate on them periodically,” Dr. Bello added.
Professor Jacob Ndas Legbo, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) and leader of the surgical team, revealed that the current mission targets about 30 to 50 patients between Monday and Friday.
“The foundation focuses on three things: training young surgeons, providing surgical equipment, and supporting indigent patients,” Legbo explained.
“For this intervention, we are concentrating on patients with head and neck pathologies ENT, maxillofacial, and reconstructive surgeries.”
He disclosed that the Kindred Health Surgical Foundation was established in 2023 following a collaboration with American ENT surgeon Dr. Dave Shaye of Project Life, who visited Sokoto and expressed interest in replicating the humanitarian surgical project in Nigeria.
“This is just the beginning. With the support we have now, we hope to mount interventions like this regularly, not just once a year, and to assist hospitals in treating patients who cannot pay for their treatment,” Professor Legbo noted.
The Sokoto State Ministry of Health, under the leadership of Commissioner Dr. Faruk Wurno, is backing the programme, which welcomes patients from Sokoto and beyond, as long as they meet the surgical requirements.
