LAGOS State doctors have recorded the first successful homegrown
cochlear implant surgery to restore hearing ability in two deaf patients.
The Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Department at the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, conducted the corrective surgery
on two patients – a young chap and a Lagos doctor, who had gone deaf in the line
of duty.
Director of Clinical Services and Training, LASUTH, Dr.
Adedokun Ayoade, at a briefing, said it was yet another time the Lagos tertiary
hospital was recording another astounding success, through cochlear
implantation by its own indigenous doctors.
Ayoade, who spoke on behalf of the Chief Medical Director, said
it was an exercise made possible by efforts of the state Governor, Babatunde
Fashola (SAN), to bring Nigerian experts in the Diaspora back home for needed
skills transfer.
Cochlear implantation is a hearing device implanted into
a deaf patient’s ear through surgery. The device converts sounds into impulses,
which enables the patients to hear and understand.
The latest feat follows a similar exercise that was
conducted at the hospital last year by Cochlear Foundation, University of
Freiburg, Germany.
But with a successful repeat of the exercise by local
practitioners, Ayoade said it was another feat in the hospital’s quest to
provide excellent health for the people of the state through her local
indigenous professionals.
According to him, “this mission will no doubt improve
self-esteem and build social confidence in patients who as a result of loss of
hearing isolate themselves from societal engagements. This, we believe to a
very large extent will find a lasting solution to a long lasting problem of
deafness and hearing impairment in deaf people,” he said.
LASUTH ENT Surgeon and one of the leading hands in the surgery,
Dr. Olawale Olubi noted that the homegrown exercise, which is significantly
cost-effective than having it overseas, would open the option of corrective ear
surgery to many Nigerians that are having hearing impairments.
An estimate has it that no fewer than 2.8 per cent of Nigerians
are either partially or completely deaf.
Apparently excited at the development, Fashola said it was
a demonstration that they care about the physically challenged, even as the
state government would begin to sponsor the cochlear implant for many Nigerians
that are in need of corrective ear surgery.
Fashola, who spoke to a mammoth crowd at the All
Progressives Congress (APC) rally held in Badagry area of the state, said: “I
start on a happy note. For the first time, we successfully carried out a
cochlear implant surgery. What that means is that our doctors in our hospital
has restored hearing back to somebody who was deaf.
“Before, you have to travel out of Nigeria before you can get
that kind of service, but a Nigerian doctor (Dr. Anthony Owa), came back home
at my request, joined LASUTH and working with all our staff. This is the feat
that has been performed at home.
“So, it means now that the door is open for a lot of our brothers
and sisters, our children who have never heard a sound before, that they would
begin to hear because we would expand that project,” he said.
Fashola said the exercise shows the state’s policy to support
disabled and physically challenged people.
According to him, “it is about a deep commitment on how people
can get on with their lives, if government does what it should do. Those, who
are physically challenged are not disabled and they crave for a chance and
opportunity to compete and so we have continued to intervene,” he said.
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