Chandigarh, 17 December: The team of Rotarian doctors from India returned home after having conducted over 780 polio corrective surgeries in Abuja, Nigeria.
Addressing the media here today, former world president of Rotary International, who conceived this project, Rajendra K. Saboo of Chandigarh said that that the team of 25 doctors and volunteers completed 780 surgeries on 353 polio-afflicted patients in the 9-days camp organized at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, and Federal Medical Centre at Keffi in Nassarawa State, both near Abuja.
Nearly 600 patients were pre-selected from the polio-endemic areas of Nigeria with the help of Federal Minister of Health, Nigeria, including Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Bauchi, Nainja, Yobe, Nasarawa, Borno, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, and brought to Kubwa for screening, besides many other walk-in patients at both the camps.
The 25-member team of Indian Rotarian doctors included 12 ortho-surgeons, five anesthesiologists, one pathologist, one general surgeon, and six volunteers had arrived in Abuja on 2nd December engaged itself immediately in screening the patients at the holding bay at National Youth Service Corps camp in Kubwa, where the polio-afflicted patients were brought by the state health authorities, and were screened by the Indian doctors for surgeries, he added.
The efforts of Indian doctors were well acknowledged by the Nigerian government who assured that they would step up the efforts to eradicate polio from Nigeria, which remains one of the three polio-endemic countries.
The Indian team of doctors had taken along medical equipment, supplies and consummables weighing nearly 1150 kgs with them and were hand-picked since they had the expertise in treating similar patients in India.
Another highlight of the mission was that the Nigeria's Federal Minister of Health, Dr Onyebuchi Chukwu , who is a orthopedic surgeon and a Rotarian, joined the Indian doctors, to conduct a polio corrective surgery on a six years old girl from Zamfara, as a gesture of solidarity with the team from India.
This was 26thintercontinental medicare mission that Rajendra K. Saboo initiated way back in 1998, engaging Indian doctors to serve beyond borders, but the first ever single-speciality mission organised for polio-corrective surgeries.
Rotary International is a volunteer organization of business, professional, and community leaders who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotary club members belonging to 33,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Learn more at www.rotary.org.
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