Advanced heart procedures come to Ibadan
There is a narrative that often describes the African healthcare sector. This is that the problems of Africa are confined mainly to infectious diseases and that chronic diseases and the technologies required to manage these in Western societies have no place in “third world” countries.
The resident consultant cardiologists in Ibadan were happy to cooperate in finding suitable patients who would benefit from procedures carried out in the catheter lab. It was rapidly apparent that they were excited at the opportunity to offer more definitive therapy to their patients than they had been able to do until then. Eight patients were quickly identified with typical symptoms of suspected ischaemic heart disease. Dr. Adeleke assembled a team consisting of 2 nurses from his institution (Mrs. Adeleke and Bill Feteke) in Delaware and myself (a structural / congenital heart disease fellow in Toronto) to travel to Ibadan to carry out the procedures. The majority of the equipment used was brought to Nigeria by the group from Delaware including some the commonly used catheter lab medications.
Mrs. Adeleke and Bill Feteke
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The UCH, Ibadan Cardiac Team
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were adults but there is possibly an even greater deficit of care exists in the paediatric and congenital heart disease populations where many unnecessary mortality and morbidity occur due to lack of recognition and unavailability of treatment. This is an area we hope to address in conjunction with UCH and their paediatric cardiologists in the future in the realm of structural intervention.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has…Margaret Mead