Nigerian university teaching hospital performs second kidney transplant

In a major medical milestone, the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) has successfully carried out its second living-donor kidney transplant—15 years after the first one was performed.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Ahmed Ahidjo, during a press briefing held in Maiduguri, Borno State.

According to Professor Ahidjo, the successful transplant marks a significant leap forward for the hospital and the broader healthcare system in northern Nigeria. He emphasized that this achievement reflects years of investment in training, infrastructure, and strategic partnerships aimed at enhancing specialized medical care in the region.

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“This is not the first time UMTH is doing the 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.

Mr Ahidjo also announced that already 20 patients were admitted awaiting surgery on the same kidney transplant.

He appealed to donors to contribute funds to support the have-not patients who needed the surgery so dearly.

The CMD said that though, the hospital provided free services being a federal government facility, adding that the patient’s dialysis had been subsidised by the government by reducing everything to N12,000 which was less than eight dollars compared with 1,000 dollars charged for same dialysis elsewhere.

Mr Ahidjo said that the target was to make transplant one of the cheapest in West Africa, saying their facility was the largest in the country with a capacity to accommodate up to 85 patients at once.

“UMTH has four fully equipped theatre rooms. All for kidney transplant which were fully equipped with modern equipment,” the CMD said.

He, however, commended TETFUND for its support to the hospital in terms of equipment and other infrastructure.

Mr Ahidjo also commended Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno for donating N50 million to the hospital to carry out research on causes of kidney related diseases in the North-East.

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 exact causes are not yet known but many samples were taken to laboratories and the result is awaited,” Mr Ahidjo said.

(NAN)