The National Obstetric Fistula Centre (NOFIC), Abakaliki, Ebonyi state have repaired over 3,063 fistula patients free of charge and rehabilitated 486 of them.
The Medical Director of the hospital, Professor Johnson Obuna disclosed this in Abakaliki when members of the Ebonyi state Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), paid him a courtesy call.
He said apart from the primary role of NOFIC which is to cure women of fistula, the hospital also engages in other ancillary services like screening of breast cancer, maternity among other services.
He said that the Center has screened 21,209 cervical and breast cancer patients, 1273 prostate cancer patients and treated 43 of them.
“Since we started, we screened about 21,209 cervical and breast cancer patients and 1,273 prostate cancer patients. We have also treated about 513 cervical cancer, 438 breast cancer, 43 prostate cancer, we have repaired about 3,063 fistula patients. In terms of prostate surgery, we have handled about 849. We have screened 868 cases in mammogram services and we have rehabilitated 486 fistula patients”,
“Most of these women developed VVF because they didn’t have money to attend hospital and pay in the hospital where they will deliver. So, they keep on having the fistula. There are some of these women that after repair, they get pregnant. They go back and deliver and it will develop another fistula.
“Since we started these maternity services, all those women who have fistula and they got pregnant, they come here and we do caesarean section for them free. Since we started the maternity services, we have done 94 caesarean section and then 299 deliveries. There was a 16 year old girl that got pregnant and we did her surgery free. That girl if she had delivered elsewhere, she would have had fistula.
“Since our hospital is already offering services for the abused, we said let us take all the abused and make sure that this centre is a centre you can come and handle all types of abused. So, we now started gender-based violence unit and we built a brand new bungalow for that. Since we started, we have handled 55 cases of gender-based violence cutting across rape, FGM, economic and physical abuse. Obunna explained.
