Africans rising
Nigeria’s Lagos State University Teaching performs successful first ever kidney transplant and Bone Bridge Surgery
Nigeria’s Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) has announced a number of major medical breakthroughs worth celebrating. The institution says it recently carried out the first successful Bone Bridge Surgery in West Africa, completed Cochlear Implant surgeries on three deaf patients without the support of foreign doctors and also successfully completed the first ever kidney transplant.
The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) has announced that it recently carried out the first successful Bone Bridge Surgery in West Africa, a major medical breakthroughs worth celebrating.
The ground-breaking medical operation was reportedly conducted in December last year, and the medical institution says it successfully completed Cochlear Implant surgeries on three deaf patients without the support of foreign doctors.
In another giant medical stride, the institution also revealed a team of indigenous consultants from various specialties of the teaching hospital successfully completed the first ever kidney transplant.
These medical achievements are indeed commendable and prove that African countries have the potential to transform and improve health care delivery systems to match quality global standards.
Indeed, medical institutions across the continent have the potential to achieve such remarkable successes with investment and support from government and private sector.
We look at some major medical milestones recorded in recent years on the continent:
1. In a ground-breaking operation, in 2014, a team of surgeons from Stellenbosch University (SU) and Tygerberg Hospital performed the first successful penile transplant in the world. The operation was performed on 11 December 2014 at Tygerberg Hospital in Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa.
2. A team of Zimbabwean surgeons successfully separated conjoined twin babies in 2014 in a remarkable marathon operation. The team separated Kupakwashe and Tapiwanashe Chitiyo who shared the same liver.
Doctor’s at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, and Cape Town’s Tygerberg Hospital performed the world’s first successful penis transplant. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
3. In an innovative and ground-breaking technique a team of doctors at Tygerberg Hospital and Stellenbosch University (South Africa) performed the world’s first successful life-saving and cost-effective skin (grafting) culture transplant.
4. A team of Zambian and South African specialists led by U.S. Doctor, Ben Carson separated 11-month-old Zambian twins Joseph Banda and Luka Banda in 1997, in South Africa. The operation was the first case of Type 2 craniopagus twins ever separated with both surviving and both being neurologically normal.
Not-so-recent milestones
5. In December 1967, South African doctor, Dr Christiaan Barnard, performed the world’s first human to human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.