An independent laboratory has confirmed the tumour weighed 26 kilogrammes, double the size removed by Indian doctors around the same time last year.
The medical team at Safehand Hospital, Old Ojo Road, Lagos, led by the Director of Anaesthesia,Emergency and Family Medicine, Dr Innocent Okoawo, removed the tumour from a 37-year-old
Nigerian woman, Abimbola Esther Akinade.The three-hour long surgery was performed in February 2014, two months before doctors in the south Indian city of Chennai performed a similar surgery to remove a 13.6kg fibroid tumour from a 52-year-old woman simply called Latha.
Until now, the Indian doctors were known to have the record for removing the largest fibroid
tumour. Dr Okoawo told AfricaNewesday, that an independent confirmation of the size of the
tumour he successfully removed prompted him to seek to correct the record. Seramoses Diagnostics, also based in Lagos, confirmed the tumour weighed 26kg and was 31cm in diameter.
Additionally, 32 other smaller fibroids were removed. Speaking to AfricaNewsday in a telephone interview, the patient, Miss Akinade, said: “It was a real miracle.
”She realised he had a fibroid tumour seven years earlier, while she was a trainee nurse. Nothing could be done sooner because of her inability to pay the cost of surgery and her dreading of
surgery.
“I was under a lot of pressure,” she said. “My menstrual periods were very irregular, sometimes
delayed for 10 days. I suffered from fatigue a lot.” Miss Akinade ruefully said: “Sometimes people
who thought I was pregnant would say ‘I hope you will deliver safely’ and that made me
furious.” “It was not easy,” she said. Even a doctor in the hospital where she was a trainee nurse told her
no hospital would be able to carry out a successful surgery.
In an emailed comment, Dr Okoawo noted: “The double icing on the cake is the fact that she
received no transfusion and her uterus was not removed even when we removed 32 additional
smaller fibroids.”The patient, Miss Akinade, opted for blood less surgery on religious grounds, however,
increasing reports show that bloodless surgery has led to quicker recovery of patients and as a result has become more popular. Fear of infection and the desire to contain the cost of treatment are other reasons some opt for bloodless surgery.
He told AfricaNewsday in a telephone interview that Miss Akinade is now fully recovered and her
current photographs demonstrate the major transformation she has gone through after the surgery.
Miss Akinade said on telephone: “Now I am sound.” She currently lives in Ijoko area of Otta,
Ogun State, near Lagos, where she is currently a trader and spends time in the ministry, preaching
the good news of the Bible. more pics after cut...
Miss Akinade before the operation
Miss Akinade before the operation
Miss Akinade after the operation
The Fibroid in a bucket at the hospital
Miss Akinade after the Surgery
Source:horshaw.wordpress.
