When he passed out of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital clutching MBBS (Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Medicine) in 1993, Dr. Bazuaye Godwin Nosakhare did not know he would be heading back to the school to help groom other doctors. He also had no inkling that 17 years down the line, he would lead a team to put the institution on the global medical map.

Inside the aircraft on a long flight to Switzerland in 2009, four members of staff of the teaching hospital comprising two nurses, one staff in the haematology department, and Bazuaye began the journey to history. At Basel, in Switzerland, they had an intensive one-year training in stem cell transplant, a relatively new branch of medicine that provides total cure for sickle cell patients, leukemia and other blood-related disorders.

When their trainers certified them fit, Dr. Bazuaye, Mrs. Imafidon Rose (pediatric nurse) Mrs. Ogunlere Beatrice (adult nurse) and Mr. Eguae Osaretin of the haematology unit returned to Benin to begin a process that makes the hospital wave the flag as a pioneer in bone marrow transplant in West Africa, coming behind Egypt and South Africa.

Something new? Dr. Bazuaye would not be drawn into any controversy given claims by some people who say they ‘have been working on it since 2001’. ‘‘I would rather not involve myself in any claims. I can tell you that we have successfully carried out bone narrow transplant here and the patient is alive and well. The World Health Organisation recognises it and verification teams from the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Health were here. Even the minister was here. We are not in any controversy. If anyone says he has done any such transplant, it will be nice to see the patient and see how well the patient is doing,” he says, preferring to discuss the job.

Ndik Mattew was five when his distraught parents brought him to University of Benin Teaching Hospital. He was a sickle cell patient who regularly fell ill. He was ‘problematic’ as described by the team that did the bone marrow transplant on him. He reportedly could not stand on account of stroke and paralysis. He was the shadow of a healthy when he was brought the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.

Changing from SS to AA Shortly after the trainees returned from Switzerland Ndik became their first test. ‘It was a tough and rigorous process’ said Egua Osaretin of the hematology department who carried out countless blood tests on the patient and his elder brother whose blood came to his younger brother’s rescue. The donor was admitted for weeks so that his blood can be certified fit for his brother through radiotherapy.

The process took the hematologist to Lagos endlessly given that the equipment in UBTH had not been certified at that time. When this reporter visited recently the equipment been certified. That will further simplify the process should the hospital undertake another transplant. After series of verification and a close watch that saw Dr Godwin Bazuaye living in the hospital premises for weeks, the bone marrow transplant tool place on September 28, 2011.

More: http://channelkoos.com/index.php/health/2018-how-sickle-cell-anaemia-patient-ndik-mattew-had-his-blood-changed-from-ss-to-aa