Benjamin Olowojebutu Foundation, BOF, offers free surgery for Breast Lumps, Fibroid, and Lipoma for women across Nigeria between Sunday, 11th November and 22nd November 2018. Partnering with Petalis Marickson Medical Centre, Uyo, (WICAF) and associates in different states, Dr. Benjamin Olowojebutu and his team of experts have been delivering free medical surgeries to alleviate the sufferings of helpless citizens in the country. Olowojebutu who’s the MD, Liberty Life Hospital Lagos, told AKANIMO KUFRE the reason behind VISION 36.
Why is your team embarking on the tour of Nigeria with free medical surgeries?
We are here for Vision 36, a project that fixes health challenges for women like Breast lumps, fibroid and Lipoma. We offer free surgery for them because we realized that some of them have been suffering from these problems for a long time due to financial incapacitation. These surgeries are very expensive surgeries. Above all, this is our little way of showing love to take out their burden by offering free surgical operations.
What inspired BOF to undertake this mission?
I had an accident some years age and I was taken to a hospital and I didn’t tell them I was a doctor and I was there for two and a half hours with a femoral fracture that was very ghastly. A drunken driver ran into my car and broke my legs in three places. I was there lying on the floor with no help, no analgesics, no vital signs. Everyone was just looking at me and I was there almost dying until I could reach out to my classmates in school that I was in the hospital. By the time doctor arrived they were thinking I am dead. So I realized that there was love missing genuinely in health care in Nigeria, which is the reason we are doing what we are doing. Before this incidence, my late father told me, “a good man will have good money but not all rich men are good men!” for you to be a good man you must give out to your community with deliberate effort. After that accident, my father’s words came into my mind. So I said I did not die so I must give out to my community consciously. So we started Benjamin Olowojebutu Foundation to deliberately give out to women who are suffering from these problems which are very very peculiar to women, you know Fibroid, breast lumps and lipoma etc.
Where else have you carried out the free surgeries?
We have done similar free surgery in Lagos where we had 500 people, we were in Benue in july. This is the time for Akwa Ibom.
How did you connect with a place like Akwa Ibom?
The focus is to reach out to Nigerians all across the geo-political zones. We reach out to people that understand love and compassion to people that are very poor. Luckily for us we got in touch with Petalis Medical through Pastor Mrs Betty Ekanem and that was how we are here today. After here, we will head to Imo State, Ijebu Ode. We have arrangements to go to Somalia and Sudan next year.
Do you get support from government and individuals for this project?
Government? No! We are here in Akwa Ibom and we are hoping the government are going to hear what we are doing and support what we are doing by the grace of God. But right now it is our personal funding, people on the board of the foundation are using their personal savings and some of our friends who believe in what we are doing are supporting us. We are opening our doors to individuals, corporate bodies and the government to support us so we can reach more people.
What is your targeted number of patients in the state within this time frame?
Our hope is to do 100 patients in Akwa Ibom. On Sunday (Day 1), we had 9 successful operations, today we have had two and our target is 10 per day for the 11 days. Apparently there are a lot of people having these problems here. As of Day 2, we have 75 on the list already.
What happens if the turnout is beyond 100 by the weekend, will there be an extension of days for operations?
No! We will have to come back because it is not an emergency, when we do 100 we reschedule. We go to rest, it has been a marathon. We were in theatre from 7am yesterday to 2am this morning.
What has it been like, the cases you have handled so far?
I thing like fibroid, some of the biggest ones I have seen was on Sunday. Some look like 8-9 months pregnancy. Like the last one on Sunday, we had to refashion the womb for her and that took us about 3 and a half hour.
Any specific challenge encountered so far in accomplishing the mission?
The consumables we brought in from Lagos might not be enough. We are trying to reach out to people that can support us, like the governor’s wife. If there is an opportunity to see her now we will not hesitate so that we can really help patients that seek our help. This is how we believe you can extend genuine love to others. What drives us is the love and compassion. Because we believe that if you can extend love and compassion to the next person you can improve the society for the better.
