History as DSUTH Performs First Kidney Transplant

The Delta State University Teaching Hospital on Monday carried out its first kidney transplant with surgeons and nephrologists from the hospital in collaboration with a medical team from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the United States of America operated on both the donor and recipient.

The partnership also covers training of the renal team in the Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DSUTH).

Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, state governor,  witnessed the first successful kidney transplant in the state.

Uduaghan said that the exercise was aimed at reducing health tourism in the state and in Nigeria.

In the collaboration exercise that lasted for about two and a half hours, the recipient, a 23 year-old patient received a kidney donated by his mother.

With the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, joining a list of the few public hospitals that provide kidney transplant services in Nigeria, patients who may be thinking of traveling abroad now have home-made options.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is one of the leading medical education and biomedical research institutions in the United States.