A team of medical experts at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital successfully removed a tumour of about 12 centimetre in diameter from the brain of a pregnant woman.
This was contained in the University of Ilorin’s Bulletin made available to newsmen on Tuesday.
It said the successful operation was carried out on a 40-year old patient, whose right side had become paralysed before the surgery.
It stated the feat was achieved with the assistance of Prof. Wale Sulaiman, a visiting Neuro-Surgeon from the Ochsner Medical Centre, New Orleans, USA, on August 8.
The bulletin stated that the 13-hour surgery captured the essence of collaboration and team work in medical practice.
It said: “No member of the medical team, which included nurses, anaesthesia and medicine, was indispensable in the operation.
“Superiority claims and territorial mentality are some of the factors that have prevented quality healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
“However, when the role of every staff of healthcare facilities, including the cleaners, is appreciated, the health care profession in Nigeria will definitely take a turn for the better.”
It also quoted Sulaiman, a Spine Surgery Specialist, as saying that the medical practice must be patient-oriented.
The bulletin stated that through that doctors would be able to empathise better with their patients.
The bulletin advised medical practitioners never to reject any emergency cases but follow the practice in the USA, where patients without insurance were usually assisted with affordable insurance programmes.
It said: “Senior medical professionals should carry their up-coming colleagues along in decision-making and ensure that responsibilities are properly delegated.
“Feedback should be sought and acted upon from patients on their satisfaction with medical services.
“The importance of determination in any project can never be underestimated; nothing is impossible to achieve with this mindset.
“My childhood days in a Lagos neighbourhood, where substance abuse was an everyday practice among the youths is a good example.”
It said the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, appreciated Sulaiman for his contributions to the wellbeing of mankind around the world and in Nigeria.
Ambali commended the College of Health Sciences for attracting significant research grants to the institution, the bulletin also stated.
He urged the university’s medical personnel to engage in collaborations that cut across various fields in order to generate research that would positively impact on their immediate community.