The Delta State University Teaching Hospital on Monday carried out its first kidney transplant.
Surgeons and Nephrologists from the hospital in collaboration with a medical team from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the United States of America operated on both the donor and recipient.
The partnership also covers training of the renal team in the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DSUTH).
The state Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, witnessed the first successful kidney transplant in the state.
Governor Uduaghan said that the exercise was aimed at reducing health tourism in the state and in Nigeria.
“Kidney cases are becoming very rampant and a lot of Nigerians go outside Nigeria for treatment for such cases. The significance of what we are doing here is that it makes it cheaper for the patients. Averagely, from what I have discussed with the managing director of the hospital, it will cost about 1.5 to 2 million Naira for the full treatment.
“We know that going outside, India, which is the cheapest, will cost up to 6 to 8 million Naira. So if we are able to hit it at 2 million Naira it will be cheaper for our patients,” Dr. Uduaghan said.
In the collaboration exercise that lasted for about two and a half hours, the recipient, a 23 year-old patient received a kidney donated by his mother.
The Lead Transplant Surgeon, Juan Arenas, said that the patient should be able to go home two days after the surgery.
“The patient should be able to go home by Wednesday. But if the patient is a little more involved, where surgery takes close to three hours, the patient has to be monitored for about a week in the hospital, to make sure the kidney is functioning well and that the drug levels are adequate.” Dr. Arenas said.
With the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, joining a list of the few public hospitals that provide kidney transplant services in Nigeria, patients who may be thinking of traveling abroad now have home-made options.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is one of the leading medical education and biomedical research institutions in the United States.