The partnership between the Surgical Aid Foundation (SAF) and Kelina Hospital has provided succour on the area of provision of health to the needy. Liaison Officer of SAF, Adenike Adeshina, yesterday said as part of year 2014 Community Outreach Programme, the foundation will sponsor minimal access surgical procedures, a humanitarian gesture that will bring relief to many. FRANCIS ADINOYI KADIRI reports
Surgical Aid Foundation is a health based nonprofit organization which has over the years impacted positively on the health sector in Nigeria. The foundation partners with a reputable hospital in Gwarinpa for her Surgical Outreach Mission. According to the foundation’s Liaison Officer, Adenike Adeshina, the focus of the organization is to ensure that patients who are in need of high-tech surgery to be able to access it, especially as the cost for such specialized medical service has become increasingly expensive and usually unaffordable to the poor.
Adenike disclosed to Blueprint that SAF is doing this to aid poor and financially challenged individuals to access the best possible care for surgical problems at the least possible cost anywhere in the world.
“This year’s programme started in February with a free cancer screening for prostate cancer and cancer of the cervix, as part of events to mark World Cancer day, recognized by WHO and the United Nations yearly in February.
“Over 150 patients have visited the foundation’s partner-hospital in Gwarinpa, for this screening exercise,” Adenike explained.
According to her, “the programme was designed as a community service to indigent citizens who, ordinarily, would consider these tests a luxury, but even relatively comfortable people have taken advantage of the free programme to avail themselves the opportunity to know their own status.”
“Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is a chemical produced by the prostate gland. Physiologically, it plays a role in the liquefaction of semen after ejaculation. Usually, very little PSA is present in the blood circulation but in men with Prostate Cancer, the level tends to be high in the blood. Any level higher than 4ng/ml is considered significant. But then, not only cancer makes PSA levels to rise in the blood,” Adenike also added, adding that as part of the 2014 Community Outreach Programme, the foundation will be sponsoring minimal access surgical procedures beginning on 17 March.
While she advised the public to visit a certified Urologist whenever their PSA is reported as higher than 4ng/ml, she stressed that only urologists have adequate training to differentiate between prostate cancer and other causes of raised PSA. “Free PSA screening for prostate cancer started since February and will end on by end of same months she said,” adding that those who have not yet done theirs are encouraged to take advantage of this programme.
She said the screening test for cervical cancer is named after Papanicolaou, who first described the usefulness of this test, and is called Pap Smear for short. Samples are collected from the cervix of the uterus for this test. The samples are taken by the consultant gynecologist, and the cells found in the samples are analyzed by a pathologist to determine if there are frank cancer cells or pre-cancer cells present on the surface of the cervix.
While saying that the foundation takes pride in having provided this service to variety of the sick since 2011, she recalled that “the first patient to benefit was a widow, who had Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy for very huge Kidney Stones, adding that the patient’s condition was probably the first PCNL procedure ever done in Nigeria.
“For the 2014 programme, laser laparoscopic or endoscopic surgeries will be done. These surgeries are usually referred to as Minimal Access Surgeries. Patients could have these surgeries and go home the same day or the next day. There is usually no blood transfusion for these procedures,” she said.
Adenike further said the SAF is in the process of considering sponsorship and providing high tech health care needs for patients with the following: enlarged prostate, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, ureteric stones, kidney stones, kidney tumours and gall stones among others.
While adding that ovarian cysts and urethral stricture treatment will also be considered for sponsorship by the foundation, she showed appreciation to the president of the past president of the SIU President, Dr Mahesh Desai, who she said visited Nigeria to support this charitable work, stating that twenty eight minimal access procedures were done in one week.
“Fifteen urologists from around the country joined the programme as observers for their own training. In 2013, over 15 high-tech surgeries were supported by the foundation. This year, the surgeries will again be purely on humanitarian grounds,”
