Maiduguri: The University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) has successfully performed its second living-donor kidney transplant 15 years after its first.
The UMTH’s Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo, announced this at a news conference on Wednesday in Maiduguri.
“This is not the first time UMTH has done a transplant. The first time UMTH conducted a kidney transplant was in August 2010, and now the Hospital has come back with full force to resume the exercise,” he said.
Ahidjo also announced that the already 20 patients were admitted awaiting surgery on the same kidney transplant.
He appealed to donors to contribute funds to support the patients who had not needed the surgery so dearly.
The CMD said that, though the Hospital provided free services as a federal government facility, the government had subsidised the patient’s dialysis by reducing everything to N12,000, which was less than eight dollars compared with 1,000 dollars charged for the same dialysis elsewhere.
Ahidjo said the target was to make transplants one of the cheapest in West Africa. Their facility was the largest in the country and could accommodate up to 85 patients at once.
“UMTH has four fully equipped theatre rooms. All for kidney transplants, which were fully equipped with modern equipment,” the CMD said. He, however, commended TETFUND for supporting the Hospital regarding equipment and other infrastructure.
Ahidjo also commended Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno for donating N50 million to the Hospital to carry out research on the causes of kidney-related diseases in the Northeast.
The CMD said that some of the research findings revealed that diabetics, hypertension and dehydration were linked with the kidney related diseases in the region.
“The causes of kidney issues for now are diabetics, hypertension and the exact causes are not yet known, but many samples were taken to laboratories, and the result is awaited,” Ahidjo said.