The first rehabilitation hospital in Lagos, Caring Habitat was commissioned, recently with a promise by its founder, Dr Abdulfatai Olaolu Odemuyiwa, to push the boundaries of the possibilities in healthcare delivery in the state.

In his opening remarks, Odemuyiwa, who was a physician in Texas, United States of America for 30 years, said that Caring Habitat, a three-floor, 40-bed all ensuite which are handicap accessible, is an idea whose time has come for Lagos State in particular and Nigeria as a whole.
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“We are to be a halfway house, a bridge between an acute centre and the home. Our mission is to transition individuals from dependent to independent living in the shortest possible time. The acute hospital benefits because they have an increase in patient turnover, we have the satisfaction of making sure that the patient makes a full recovery and returns to an independent existence.

“We opened our doors on the 11th of February 2024. Our first two patients had strokes. The first was a gentleman and grandfather who fell ill in the US while visiting his son who had just started his residency program. He came straight to us from the airport in a wheelchair and walked out of the facility. The woman in her 80s, a great grandmother also came from the USA after suffering a stroke and she demanded to return home but obviously could not live alone.

“Before you all start to wonder, we do not treat only patients from the United States! We have had patients from all over Lagos and as far as Abeokuta, Ibadan and Ekiti. Nor do we only look after stroke patients. Any medically fragile patient who is clinically stable and needs more time for healing and recovery under medical supervision is suitable for our services.

We treat patients with Dementia, those who are frail or failing to thrive, or recovering from general or orthopedic surgery, or a heart attack, or an acute respiratory infection. We have treated chronic wounds and administered long term antibiotics.”

The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Health, Mrs. Kemi Ogunyemi; the Secretary to Ogun State Governor, Mr. Tokunbo Talabi; the Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, and the Chairperson of the Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri, who were special guests at the event commended the initiative and a welcome development. Coker narrated how her father used one of such rehabilitation centre in the United Kingdom, but could not find such a facility in Nigeria when he mother needed to use one.
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