By Dipo Olowookere
The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja has performed its first open-heart surgery with a team of local medical specialists.
The LASUTH Chief Medical Director, Professor David Adewale Oke, made the disclosure at a news conference on Wednesday, stating that the hospital has developed the capacity and know-how with its team of surgeons to conduct safe and cost-effective cardiac surgery.
According to him, “The facility can effectively operate on congenital heart disease; knee disease, through knee replacement surgery and kidney disease through kidney transplant.”
Prof Oke stressed that all these breakthroughs testify to innovation and professionalism in the hospital, adding that this is one of the dreams of the Lagos State Government which wants to reduce medical tourism by Nigerians to the barest minimum.
The CMD said that the burden of structural heart disease requiring surgical intervention was on the rise in the country, maintaining that LASUTH would continue to deploy frontline technology to tackle the disease and others.
“We hope to do our best to bring respite to patients through an effective, but careful use of both human and material resources at our disposal,” he said.
Corroborating his statement, the lead surgeon, Dr Bode Falase said that the hospital is equipped with new and adequate modern equipment to handle any surgical procedure.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Aduragbemi Omiyale