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PROFOH, BOSKOH partner to provide free surgeries for Lagosians

By Ijeoma Thomas-Odia
23 February 2019   |   4:10 am
Professionals for Humanity (PROFOH) an organsation made up of doctors, nurses, microbiologists and volunteers from Houston, Texas has partnered with the Lagos All Progressives...

Professionals for Humanity (PROFOH) an organsation made up of doctors, nurses, microbiologists and volunteers from Houston, Texas has partnered with the Lagos All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial aspirants Babajide Sanwo-Olu/ Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat under the BOSKOH medical mission to bring free surgeries to citizens of Lagos state.

Speaking at the flag-off ceremony which held at the Shomolu General Hospital where the experts will be spending four days before moving to another location in the state, Sanwo-Olu said that this is not a political mission as the welfare of Lagosians has nothing to do with politics, “we are not asking for their PVCs before they can be attended to, anybody who needs help will be attended to. This is all about service to humanity.”

Coordinator of the mission and microbiologist on DNA, Nike Osa, stressed that they wanted to see how they could reduce the number of surgeries available hence they are doing their bit to improve the healthcare system.

“While we will be doing only general surgeries, the located areas are: Onikan General Hospital where Hernias, fibroids glaucomas and plastic surgeries will be handled, the Lagos General Hospital will be carrying mostly pediatric cases, while the Gynecology and Obstetric cases will be done here at Shomolu General Hospital. Our plastic surgeon, who is available, is about the third best on earth and so we have the capacity to handle these cases.

“Our focus is to ensure that people who are not able to afford this expense will get these services for free and it is an immediate intervention for them. In a community like this and with the volume of emergencies you find, if they can’t access healthcare and instead of leaving them in a state where they can’t help themselves, we have brought this to them totally free. We have doctors from the UK, Australia, Spain and USA, we have all the capacity because we have brought in the best. We also welcome volunteers to join the team to bring wellness to Lagosians.”

A director with PROFOH, Cliff Jarrell, who led the team to Nigeria, said that in terms of professionalism they have all been doing this for a long time. “I am not sure about the volume because there are a lot of people here. We have done thousands of surgical procedures in Nigeria and other countries without complications. We can take as many as we can until we are tired and can’t work anymore; we can take over 25 surgeries in a day depending on the kind of cases because there are protocols required.”

Jarrell added that in Nigeria there are recurrent kinds of health issues that he has seen, including hernias, cancer-causing tumours and orthopedic cases, too.

Gbemieotor Daniel Kama a surgeon in the team said that having done several medical missions and when invited to collaborate with BOSKOH medical mission, it was a welcome idea. “We will ensure we do as many surgeries as we can handle as there are a lot of people who need this help. The surgeries we can’t handle are heart and liver related, we do more of general surgeries including Glaucoma, thyroid, hernia, fibroids, tumour, gad bladder.”

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