Abia Specialist Hospital Performs First Brain Surgery, Saves 19-Year-Old Accident Victim

The Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, Umuahia, has recorded its first successful major brain surgery, saving the life of a 19-year-old motorcycle accident victim who arrived in a deep coma.

The Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, disclosed this on Tuesday while briefing journalists on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting chaired by Governor Alex Otti, describing the procedure as a major milestone in the state’s healthcare transformation.

The Commissioner for Health, Professor Enoch Uche, a neurosurgeon, explained that the patient was brought to the hospital on Sunday, October 4, with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of six out of 15, which later dropped to five.

Uche said the patient’s condition was critical because massive bleeding into the brain was compressing the brainstem, making immediate surgery necessary. He noted that any attempt to refer the patient to another facility could have resulted in his death.

“Because we now have facilities to undertake brain surgery, and then we have brain surgeons in the State employed by His Excellency, that surgery was done,” Uche said.

More than 100 millilitres of blood clot was evacuated from the patient’s brain during the four-hour procedure, and the young man has since started moving his limbs while receiving care in the Intensive Care Unit.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Chimezie Okwuonu, said the surgery was performed by a multidisciplinary team led by Professor Uche, the hospital’s neurosurgeon Dr Kalu, and other specialists.

Okwuonu disclosed that the hospital, which had only one specialist consultant when the current management assumed duty, now has 28 consultants, describing the expansion as part of efforts to strengthen specialist manpower and improve healthcare infrastructure in the state.

“We can comfortably say that for Abians who are in Abia State and for everybody in Abia State, we can provide a home for brain surgeries, brain and spine surgeries and anything related to the brain,” Okwuonu said.

He added that the development would complement the state’s efforts to reduce medical tourism, citing the commencement of kidney transplant services as another area where local capacity was being built.