- A Nigerian surgeon has made the country proud with his latest achievement
- According to reports, he carried out a successful operation on a 23-week-old baby who had a tumour
- The unborn baby was said to be extracted from the womb and later put back in after the operation
Nigeria stood out distinctly and shone brightly with the news of a successful surgery carried out by a team of medical doctors led by Nigerian-born Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye on an unborn baby at a Texas hospital in the US.
According to medical reports, the unborn baby had a rare tumour called sacrococcygeal teratoma that appeared at the base of the baby’s tailbone. These types of tumours are fatal and is believed to occur in about one of 40,000 pregnancies, and if left unchecked, could continue taking the baby’s blood supply and eventually cause heart failure.
According to reports, the mother of the baby was advised by another hospital to terminate the pregnancy as the chances of carrying out an open-fetal surgery posed a great risk. Fortunately, she sought a second opinion at the Texas Children’s Hospital where Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye and another colleague examined the tumour and offered her hope. The baby which was 23-week-old was removed from her mother’s womb, operated on and then returned to the womb where the injuries from her operation healed and she continued to grow until she was born again at 36 weeks.
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Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, the healthy mother and child Source: Twitter
The operation didn't come without some hurdles as the baby's heart stopped midway operation and Olutoye and his team needed to be restart her heart. She also required a blood transfusion at a stage. The operation however turned to be successful and also one of the most publicized achievements in Nigerian. Coming at a time when Nigeria was receiving bad international media courage, the Lagos-born doctor proved to the world that Nigeria could also produce greatness.
Speaking in an interview with The Nation, he had this to say: "I am truly humbled by all the attention that this has received. It is a privilege to work at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, to lead a team of talented physicians, nurses and others to provide care for Margaret Boemer and her baby Lynlee. It is a blessing to be able to care for families like the Boemers in their time of need. We should not forget that these brave parents are the ones who did not give up on their child but sought to do all they could to improve her outcome. They deserve the focus and attention. For me to be caught up in all this excitement is only by the grace of God.
Olutoye, who obtained his medical degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in 1988 before his doctoral degree in anatomy from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, in 1996, had relocated from Nigeria to the US to seek further educational opportunities.At the completion of my medical education in Nigeria, I realised that I read about a lot of different aspects of medicine that I didn’t have the opportunity to be exposed to locally. I therefore sought further educational opportunities in the United States. The Ido Ani, Ondo State-born surgeon is a son of Major-General Olufemi Olutoye (rtd) and Prof. Omotayo Olutoye. He described his childhood as wonderful.
He said: “I had a wonderful childhood. I was born in Lagos and grew up with two loving parents, (Major-General (rtd) Olufemi Olutoye, OFR and Prof. Omotayo Olutoye); three sisters (Dr. Bunmi Okanlami, Funke Olugboji, ‘Toye Gansallo) and two brothers (Air Commodore (rtd) Dr. Femi Olutoye, Dr. Segun Olutoye); grandparents, numerous cousins, uncles and aunties. It was, and still is, a wonderful loving environment. We were all taught the importance of hard work and a solid education, and most importantly, the fear of The Lord. I hail from Ido-Ani in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State, and my father is the Alani of Ido-Ani, Oluwatomiloye the 1st.”
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Source: Gossip.naija.ng