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Paediatric Surgeons Offer Free Operations To 150 Children In Kwara
The Association of Paediatric Surgeons of Nigeria (APSON) has commenced a week-long surgeries for 150 children in Kwara State
The Intervention for children below the ages of 15 years with Inguinoscrotal swelling (hernia and hydrocele) is taking place at Aisha Buhari Mother and Child Hospital, Eiyenkonrin.
Other conditions includes Lipoma, Cleft lips, Lump and Bumps, Undescended Testis, Cyst and Umbilical Hernia.
Speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of the programme, the National Vice Chairman of the association, Prof Lukman Abdur-Rahman, explained that the free surgeries are part of the activities organised for the 23rd Annual Conference of the Association.
Prof. Abdur-Rahman, who is the Local Committee Chairman, explained that Kwara will be hosting the conference for the second time.
“We are including free surgical outreach to give back to the communities by providing free surgeries and our target is 150 children,” he said.
Abdur-Rahman, who is Consultant Paediatrician at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) said that activities of the surgery will last for a week, while the state will be hosting an International training facilitated by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada where members would be trained on care of children that suffer injuries of various types.
He explained that the course is titled: “Trauma Resuscitation in Kids”, which will take place at UITH for two days.
The Vice President of APSON explained that the state will host both local and international participants who will be delivering discussions and talks on current matters.
According to him, the theme of the conference is entitled:’ Quality Improvement in Surgical Care of Children’, with the sub theme: ‘Transitional Care in Paediatric Surgery’.
Abdur-Rahman pointed out that the choice of theme is the belief that the association had done so much in the expansion of what was offered in children surgical services.
“We want to look at ways to improve on quality of services we are rendering to children, so that everybody will exchange ideas and how to make things better”.
According to him, in caring for the children, the association will also deliberate on how to help them after they have attained adulthood on managing emerging diseases and conditions.
Also speaking, a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at UITH, Prof Nasir AbdulRasheed, indicated that the free surgical outreach is for children who have special conditions which required surgery but could not afford the cost.
He noted that these children are kept with their parents without surgical intervention because they dont have the means or they dont have access.
Prof. AbdulRasheed explained that most of the common surgical conditions in children that are presented are hernia.
“They are usually presented as swelling in the scrotum and hydrocele, which has attended complications. We are also attending to children with cleft lips and lumps,” he said.
Some parents of children who benefited from the free surgeries, Mr Abdullahi Abubakar and Mrs Nafisat Baqi, commended the Association for the life saving intervention.
They explained that they could not access health intervention previously because the surgery was expensive to the tune of N200,000.
By Abubakar Umar
