(Doctors Performing Surgery. Photo Credit: Vanguard News)
A 19-year-old motorcycle accident victim has survived emergency brain surgery at the Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in Umuahia.
Doctors removed more than 100 millilitres of blood clot that was pressing on his brainstem.
He was brought to the hospital on Sunday, October 4, in a deep coma with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of six out of 15, which later dropped to five.
Tests showed heavy bleeding inside his skull, and the operation lasted four hours.
Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, shared this on Tuesday while briefing journalists at Government House, Umuahia, after the State Executive Council meeting led by Governor Alex Otti.
The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Enoch Uche, who is a neurosurgeon, said the surgery had to be done at once.
He said moving the patient to another facility could have been deadly.
He added that the state now has the equipment for brain surgery and brain surgeons employed by the governor.
The young man has since started moving his limbs and is recovering in the Intensive Care Unit.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr Chimezie Okwuonu, told Vanguard it was the first brain surgery done at the facility.
A team of specialists led by Uche and the hospital’s neurosurgeon, Dr Kalu, carried it out.
He said the hospital had only one specialist consultant when the present management took over, but now has 28.
He said the hospital will build on this to offer more brain and spine surgeries and specialised neurological care in Abia, which will also help cut down medical tourism.
He noted that kidney transplant services have also started in the state.
Kanu also said Abia has paid N502.1 million as counterpart funding under the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, which is needed to access federal support for vulnerable residents.
He said specialised trauma equipment for bone, brain and spine surgeries is being brought in through a partnership with a Swedish organisation.
Health interventions have started in flood-hit communities to stop disease outbreaks, and no cases of Lassa fever, Ebola, diphtheria or COVID-19 were recorded in the period.
The head of the Abia State Eye Health Management Bureau, Dr Betty Emeka-Obasi, said the state has begun activities for the 2026 World Sight Day under the theme Safe Eyes, Safe Roads and Safe Lives.
Free eye screening for commercial drivers is part of it, and the campaign runs until October 15 with the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Road Safety Corps and transport unions.
She said a vision corridor will be set up at the Nnenna Otti Bus Terminal so drivers can easily check their eyesight, in order to reduce road risks caused by poor vision.
