Delta State University Hospital Performs First Kidney Transplant

The Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DSUTH), Oghara, carried out its first kidney transplant on January 13, 2014, Monday.

Local surgeons and nephrologists were assisted by a medical team from the University of Texas South-western Medical Centre in the United States of America.

The doctors operated on both the donor and recipient.

The partnership also covers training of the renal team in the DSUTH.

Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the Governor of Delta State, witnessed the first successful kidney transplant in the state.

He said that the exercise was aimed at reducing health tourism in the state and in Nigeria.

In the collaboration exercise that lasted for about two and a half hours, the recipient, a 23 year-old patient received a kidney donated by his mother.

This success means positive change for the patients who may be thinking of travelling abroad, but now have home-based options.

It would be noted that the University of Texas South-western Medical Centre is one of the leading medical education and biomedical research institutions in the United States of America.