FMC Umuahia makes progress in kidney transplantation, open-heart surgery, IVF

The Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Umuahia in Abia State has made breakthrough in in In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), kidney transplantation, open-heart surgery, nursing care among others. Also, no fewer than 120,000 patients attended the hospital in 2016.

Medical Director of the FMC, Dr. Chuku Abali, made this known to journalists while giving account of the hospital’s activities in 2016. Abali said that in less than nine months time, the first baby or babies will expectedly be delivered by some of the hospital’s patients who got pregnant through the IVF while open heart surgery will begin to feature as soon as the costly heart-lung machine is procured and commissioned.

He attributed the patient-growth to inflow from Imo and other neighbouring states including the crisis at the FMC Owerri that made patients in that area to seek medical attention at Umuahia FMC where according to him, there are appropriate personnel, equipment and facilities.

The Medical Director however said that with the patient growth rate, the need arose for more consumables, more personnel, more funding adding that his FMC had applied for approval to recruit required 400 additional nurses medical personnel and seven doctors/consultants.

Specifically, he reported that its acquired Computed Tomography (CT) Scan machine and the IVF clinic have been running fully with IVF being run in collaboration with experts from the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching hospital Nnewi and others.

On its Kidney Transplantation project, he said: “We have some collaboration with some hospitals in this project including the University of Toledo Ohio United States (U.S.) – well known in kidney transplantation with who we signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that is not limited to kidney transplantation and there will be inter visits by our professionals in both Nigeria and the US. We also in 2015 received invitation where I was also inducted into its medical hall of fame.”

Abali also said that the cardiovascular unit is doing well but still has some challenges and hence its development has been phased out of which they have crossed first and second phases. “ We are doing other heart surgeries but before we get into phase three, which is the open heart surgery, we need a heart -lung machine which is quite costly.”