The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, has commissioned two-room Children’s Surgical Suites precisely for children requiring surgical operations.
According to Consultant Paediatric Surgeon and Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode, the Centre was a $450,000 donation from KIDS O-R and an overseas benevolent philanthropic organization.
The organization funds the establishment of children-specific operation rooms in high-volume surgical units to enhance survival and reduce access challenges for children undergoing surgical procedures.
The paediatric surgeon said children have a wide range of surgical needs, resulting in a number of birth defects that may require operations or complicate planned procedures.
“Although children under the age of 14 years constitute a whooping 45 per cent of the population, provisions for their surgical needs are subsumed in those made for adults in most centres. It is therefore common for surgeons who care for kids to queue up, waiting to operate on children in the same theatres where adults are prioritised and given preferential care over children, even in urgent circumstances. Elective cases also suffer prolonged delays,” he said.
Bode stated that LUTH is the fourth beneficiary of this noble intervention after the National Hospital, Abuja, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu and Kaduna.
