LUTH set for first bone marrow transplant to mark 60th anniversary

T HE Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH has announced the readiness to perform its first bone marrow transplant for the cure of sickle cell anaemia, as part of the events lined up to mark the 60th anniversary of the institution.

LUTH’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Chris Bode, at a press briefing in Lagos to unveil the hospital’s three-month long anniversary celebration, said a number of other landmark projects, like the 30-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU), will also be commissioned at the hospital.

The CMD said LUTH remains one of the best teaching and specialist hospitals in the country, with the highest concentration of skilled medical and paramedical staff in different areas of medicine, thus explaining why the hospital is always the focus when foreign countries, oil companies and highbrow private hospitals in Nigeria are recruiting medical manpower.

Professor Bode stated that LUTH, today the largest teaching hospital in Nigeria with over 1,000 beds, pioneered Small Incision Cataract Excision Surgery in Nigeria and has trained over 40 doctors from all over the country in the procedure in the past years.

He also said the hospital has made significant contributions to medical science, particularly with the separation of conjoined twins and in-vitro fertilization.

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According to him, “the hospital has been designated a centre of excellence in dentistry, alongside a major breakthrough of the successful conception and delivery of the first authentic test tube (In-Vitro-Fertilization) baby performed by the duo of Professors Osato Frank Giwa-Osagie and Oladapo Ashiru at the hospital.

“The hospital has also commenced laparoscopic general and gynecologic surgery which has dramatically reduced the duration of hospitalisation after surgery. LUTH can now boast of a comprehensive diagnostic centre and VIP clinic, state-of-the-art laboratories, radio-diagnosis, radiotherapy and renal dialysis facilities in the years of its existence.

“The hospital has also partnered with Smile Train since 2007 to support free surgical treatment of patients with orofacial clefts, with over 800 surgical repairs of cleft lip and/or palate done in LUTH so far, as well as in orthodontics care, speech therapy and nutrition for patients with orofacial clefts.”

The CMD said as part of measures to upgrade its facilities, LUTH keyed into the Federal Government-driven Public Private Partnership (PPP), an initiative to provide state-of-the-art facilities, including the multi-million dollar NSIA-LUTH Cancer Centre (NLCC), the first of its kind in West Africa, LUTH blood banking system, radiodiagnosis centre, independent power project, sickle cell centre/LUTH bone marrow transplant centre and the Olusola Dada Dialysis Centre & Renal Institute.