Day doctors closed holes in their patients’ heart
THE two- year- old boy lay on his right. His left arm stretched away from his side, where an incision had opened his skin. Retractors went in, holding apart his ribcage while surgeons prodded inside him. Doctors John Okereke, Sanusi Michaels and Elijah Miner were trying to correct Patent Ductus Arteriosis ( an unclosed hole in the aorta which is supposed to close after birth). But for this two- year- old, the unclosed hole retards his growth, and leaves him prone to heart attack.
The incision in his left led surgeons to the hole they needed to close in his heart. But flesh, fat and blood blocked their progress. They used a pen- like instrument that cuts through flesh and quickly seals bleeding arteries to prevent excessive bleeding.
As the surgery continues, blood pools in the hole. The surgeons run a rubber tube in to suck out the fluids. The hide and seek game with the hole in the boy’s heart kept the doctors standing for four hours.
Then the meticulous process of stitching back the layers of flesh parted at the beginning of the operation started; convalescing process had begun.
A day later, the boy was in intensive care unit at Garki Hospital, Abuja. Beside his bed was a 13- year old Glory Ogbuobaka who also had an open heart surgery the day before.
Ogbuobaka had an Atrial Septral Defect ( ASD), a hole in the wall between the two upper chambers of her heart. In her case, the incision went right through the centre of her rib, held open by retractors.
Her heart had to stop working for the period surgeons operated on her. A lung machine attached to her took on the function of her heart.
The lead surgeon, Dr John Okereke, who started heart transplant in Saudi Arabia around 1986, gave instructions about the rate of work on the heart lung machine from time to time to a US- based perfusionist, Kareemat Ipaye. The distinctively Nigerian accent of Dr Okereke and the American one of Kareemat Ipaye didn’t affect communication between them. The heart lung machine was able to hold brief for Ogbuobaka until her original heart was “shocked back to life” after the hole was blocked.
A day after the operation, she said she was fine. Asked how she felt that she didn’t have to travel abroad for the operation, she said “happy.”
Her mother, Joy Ogbuobaka, is also glad that her daughter could have the problem in her heart repaired in Nigeria.
“It is great. Nigeria is improving now. I am very happy. Instead of spending money going overseas, we are being treated here. My daughter is already taking juice, water and custard,” the mother said.
Dr Okereke also expressed his joy at being able to give back to his country from his skills. He said the equipment he brought for the heart surgery would be left for the hospital so that when heart surgeons are coming for surgery next time they will not have to come with anything. He urged Nigerians to persuade their government officials to make conditions conducive for many skilled Nigerians in the diaspora who want to come back and help their country.
“I have been living in the United States for many years, but they don’t really need me because they have many surgeons like me. But everybody says it is difficult to do surgery here. One of the reasons I came here is to prove that it is not difficult.
Dr Miner of Garki Hospital, who took part in the four cardiac operations that were carried out by the team, said some of the patients didn’t pay for the surgery fee in full. But the hospital saw it as opportunity to show Nigerians that heart surgeries can be done within the country.
The doctors and nurses who took part in the surgeries were very happy seeing what they had known in theory happening in real life.