A new milestone has been recorded in the annals of First Cardiology Consultants(FCC) Hospital Ikoyi Lagos. The first two open heart surgeries have just been successfully carried out at the hospital.
The first patient had become incapacitated with fatigue and shortness of breath for several months. Investigations showed that he was born with a hole in the heart. The surgery entailed removing a patch from the front of his heart and then it was sewed to cover the hole after completely stopping the heart, and temporarily transferring the functions of the heart to a heart-lung machine. The heart was subsequently restarted after the repair and patient is recovering well.
The second patient has blocked heart arteries which caused damage to the heart muscle and caused him chest pain even when carrying out minimal activity like walking a few steps. Tests performed also at FCC showed blocked heart arteries in several places. Again, the heart was stopped (arrested), blood diverted to heart – lung machine and new blood vessel taken from his thigh and was used to jump the blocked areas (bypass).
The surgeries were carried out by a team led by a world renowned Heart surgeon Dr khan
The heart surgery program is intended to amongstother things reduce the cost of carrying out such advanced heart operations abroad with the attendant costs in foreign exchange.