10th September, 2019
The management of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, said it has achieved another medical feat through the use of improvised methods in conducting a Pulmonary Embolism Surgery to save a patient’s life.
Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, LASUTH Chief Medical Director, who made the disclosure on Monday in Lagos, said a medical team comprising an Interventional Cardiologist and other medical doctors achieved the feat on Sept. 6.
Fabamwo, however, did not disclose the name of the patient.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Pulmonary Embolism is a form of medical emergency that happened when a clot was lodged in the pulmonary artery, thus blocked blood flow to the lungs.
Fabamwo said in spite of dire shortage of skilled manpower and equipment in this branch of emergency medicine, doctors at LASUTH were still able to save the life of the patient.
“Globally, it is a medical condition which the fatality rate is quite high, and urgent medical intervention is needed to dislodge and remove the clot to save life of the patient who would have succumbed to a heart attack.
“In order to carry out this procedure safely, a Catheterisation laboratory (Cath Lab) is required, which costs about N150 million to set up.
“Though, LASUTH does not, as of now, have a cath lab, but we are excited that our Interventional Cardiologist and other doctors recorded another feat in this area of medicine, using improvised methods.
“This is indeed the second time our team will successfully carry out this kind of high profile procedure in LASUTH,” the chief medical director said in a statement.
He expressed optimism that there were lots of medical possibilities in LASUTH, if more facilities were made available to the team of medical experts across all branches of medicine in the institution.
Fabamwo urged more philanthropic organisations to partner with the hospital in order to make such medical facilities available to citizens of Lagos