Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari has called for adequate investment in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases in the country.
She made the call while receiving beneficiaries of her free cardiovascular (heart) surgery at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The beneficiaries were at the Villa to thank the first lady for her assistance.
Mrs. Buhari expressed the desire to continue her collaboration with other development partners in the health sector to provide the necessary care to children of underprivileged families in Nigeria.
She said, “Through my Aisha Buhari foundation and the Future Assured, an idea was conceived to partner with other international heart surgeons from Italy to undertake free heart surgeries for Nigerians in need of such services.
“The mission was deliberate and meant to provide medical care to the needy, especially children with critical heart conditions and today, we are able to celebrate with the beneficiaries after a successful operation.”
The first lady, therefore, expressed her determination to support all efforts towards improving the health conditions of less-privileged children.
“The feedback and heart-warming updates on how these procedures has changed the lives of patients and their families will always serve as a source of inspiration for me to do more.
”Based on the experiences gathered during the cardiac mission, there is a huge gap in cardiac surgery care in Nigeria, which requires huge investment from both public and private sector,” she said.
The Chief Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre Jabi, Professor Sa`ad Ahmed expressed gratitude to the first lady for partnering with the Italian surgeons, noting that expertise was shared during the operation.
According to him, the beneficiaries would have found it difficult to cope with the conditions without the intervention of the first lady.
Mr. Murtala Dodo, a beneficiary, expressed appreciation to the first lady for resuscitating his life after battling with the disease for a long time.
NAN reports that the first lady had on Jan. 24, invited a team of cardiac surgeons from Italy to offer free heart surgery for less-privileged children in Nigeria.
(NAN)
