On Friday, 14th of October, 2022, the Cardiology unit in the Department of Medicine at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in collaboration with Cardiostart International conducted two-tier cardiovascular operations for underprivileged patients with heart diseases.
The mission involved open heart surgeries and cardiac interventional surgeries.
Prof. Adetokunbo O. Fabamwo, Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, praised the Cardiostat team for their great and ardent interest in the Lagos healthcare system in general and LASUTH in particular during the past eight years.
He stated that the team’s work has improved LASUTH’s standards for the delivery of healthcare solutions and has so far provided many families who previously believed their loved ones might never receive the necessary intervention an immeasurable amount of hope.
He recognized that the collaboration is undoubtedly advantageous and that the hospital’s administration does not take the effort for granted.
Dr Emily Farkas, a cardiothoracic surgeon with a practice in the US and the incoming president of Cardiostat International, commended the work of the LASUTH cardiac team.
Dr Farkas characterized the development as outstanding and compared it to the time when Cardiostat first started working with the hospital.
She claimed that because the internal cardiac surgeons at LASUTH have gotten so good at what they do, her team is currently only providing support to them.
According to her, the hospital made a huge improvement by adding a cardiac catheterization lab, which will enable it to do more surgeries and inevitably save more lives. She thus pledged Cardiostat’s ongoing assistance in providing the hospital with the necessary supplies, equipment, and support on all fronts.
Dr Bode Falase, Head of the LASUTH Cardiac Team and Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, mentioned that Cardiostat has significantly aided the hospital in realizing its goal of providing excellent cardiovascular treatment to underserved patients in Lagos State.
He said that throughout the more than 18 years of cardiac treatment at LASUTH, several significant steps had been made. All hands are now on deck to maintain momentum and, ultimately, improve the number of lives saved every day.
Dr Falase noted that the capacity to test and consult with more patients must be increased in order to fulfil the goal of becoming the best cardiac centre. By doing so, cases can be diagnosed in the early stages and patients may have a greater chance of making a full and rapid recovery than when cases have deteriorated and have become high risk.
The two-tier mission’s primary goal, according to Dr Seye Oladimeji, Head of Interventional Cardiology at LASUTH, was to advance the practice of interventional cardiology at LASUTH and throughout Nigeria. He underlined that although the hospital had begun doing interventional cardiac operations earlier, the presence of the more skilled Cardiostart team would speed up the transmission of advanced skills.
Dr Oladimeji went into detail about the financial impact the mission had on the patients. The CRTD (Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Device) battery alone, he claimed, cost three and a half million naira, and that’s before hospital admission costs, surgeries, and other costs. He observed that many people would have been deterred by the cost load.
During the one-week expedition, the Cardiostat team conducted over thirty (30) cardiac intervention surgeries in addition to three (3) open heart surgeries. For patients who were in need, they also donated multimillion naira worth of equipment, including stents for angiography and angioplasty procedures, eight implantable cardioverter defibrillators, seven pacemakers, and four CRTDs.
