The Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in Umuahia has recorded its first successful major brain surgery.
The Commissioner for Health, Professor Enoch Uche, said the operation was performed on a 19-year-old patient who was brought to the hospital in a deep coma after suffering massive bleeding in the brain.
Uche said the bleeding was compressing the patient’s brainstem and made immediate surgery necessary, adding that transferring him to another facility could have been fatal.
“More than 100 millilitres of blood clot was evacuated from the patient’s brain during the operation.
“He has since begun moving his limbs and is receiving further treatment in the Intensive Care Unit”.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr Chimezie Okwuonu, described the procedure as a major milestone, saying the facility now has 28 specialist consultants and is expanding its capacity to provide complex brain and spine surgeries in Abia.