University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) Nigeria successfully performed its first Open Heart Surgery by a team of surgeons led by Dr Neville Solomon of Apollo Hospitals Chennai, India.

Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, Chief Medical Director (CMD), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) had announced this achievement that was performed on two young girls.

He said the feat achieved was carried out by a team of surgeons led by Dr Neville Solomon, Consultant, Pediatric & Adult Congenital Cardiac Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals Chennai, India.

The CMD described Dr. Solomon as a world renowned Cardiac surgeon who performs over 3, 000 heart surgeries free around the world in a year.

“The strategic partnership is of two benefits: first is that it exposes our patients to the highest quality of surgical care comparable to that which is obtainable anywhere in the world,” Olatinwo said.

He said the collaboration with Apollo Hospital would also facilitate skills transfer to the Teaching Hospital’s Cardiac care team so that they could carry out subsequent surgery.