Expert seeks end to Nigerians travelling abroad for surgeries

A professor of Transplantation Surgery at Imperial College, London, Nadey Hakim, yesterday said Nigerians have no reason to travel abroad for liver, kidney, and other organ transplants.

Speaking at the fourth biennial scientific conference of the Transplant Association of Nigeria (TAN) in Lagos, he maintained that the facilities needed for the surgeries were here besides the presence of competent medical professionals.

Hakim, who has operated on over 2,000 patients globally, advised the Federal Government to dissuade Nigerians from wasting resources overseas in the name of surgeries.

The wife of the Lagos State governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, said there was need to pay more attention to the cost of transplants

Represented by Dr. Ibironke Sodehinde, she regretted that lives were avoidably being lost due to the challenges confronting Nigerians.

She appealed to the experts to rise up to the occasion.

TAN president, Dr. Ebun Bamgboye, said this year’s gathering focused on funding problems and peculiarities of transplantation in a region bedeviled with diseases, poverty, literacy and limited public funding for healthcare.