Tomorrow, Apex Specialist Hospital will give birth to a long awaited Intensive Care Unit and Neurosurgery center at its Awka multi-specialty hospital on Secretariat Road, Awka. By establishing these services, citizens of the state and beyond, who need very close sophisticated attention following severe illness and consciousness, can now get chance for life again.
Also, victims of major brain and spinal injuries can now avail themselves of the much needed services of neurosurgeons at the Apex Multi-specialty Hospital, Awka. The establishment of these highly specialized services remains part and parcel of the consistent vision of Apex Multi-specialty hospital system to support the efforts of the state government and well-meaning patriots Ndi Anambra to progressively reduce the capital flight abroad from medical tourism, which has unfortunately become part of our national health and economic challenges in the past decade.
The idea of Apex Hospital, which began with the death of my father, went through a long gestation. He died needlessly at Igbo-Ukwu on August 30, 1954, of an easily treatable pneumonia, partly because of a Pentecostal church-imposed no-medicine-allowed rule, and partly because when an exception was finally made for him near death, there was no hospital within easy reach to which to convey him.
At that stage in my first secondary school year, I became determined to read Medicine, in order to build a hospital in Igbo-Ukwu, so that others would not suffer the fate of my father.
The Almighty paved my way to that end as I sailed on the waves of successive well-funded scholarships from Government Secondary School Afikpo for WASC, through King’s College Lagos for HSC, to Harvard College in Cambridge Massachusetts for Bachelors degree in Biochemistry, and thence to Boston University School of Medicine for my Doctorate in Medicine (MD) degree. My specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology plus Fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine completed at Pennsylvania Hospital in USA, I was recruited by Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nigeria in 1977, where on account of my prior research publications in peer-reviewed medical journals during my American training I rose to the rank of Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1980.
However, my intent to build a hospital at Igbo-Ukwu began to occupy my mind, until it turned into an obsession. But there was a major hurdle to jump: Would my American wife Linda, with our very young kids, agree to go to live in Igbo-Ukwu?
I discoursed with her and to my relief, she accepted the challenge of establishing a hospital in the rural area with no electricity or running water.
It was rather interesting that the hospital immediately captured the attention of the entire Southeast. – but not because of my hallowed intention to bring standard orthodox healthcare to the rural area, but because I coincidentally introduced embalment, thitherto unknown in the region..
Incidentally, Apex continued to shine in its mission of rural healthcare, thereby becoming the first to prove that providing orthodox healthcare in rural areas by the private sector is possible in the Southeastern region of Nigeria.
Our kudos to the vision of Governor Willie Obiano in establishing an Oxygen Factory at the nearby Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Teaching Hospital at Amaku. This will no doubt meet our need for the 24/7 supply of the life-saving oxygen flowing through the pipelines which we have extended to all our hospital beds located in the Emergency Room, Intensive Care Unit and the Neurosurgery Wards. We also applaud his successful introduction of Anambra State Insurance Agency (ASHIA) to complement the National Health Insurance Scheme.
I wish to thank the 45 Shareholders who have joined me in the discharge of my duty. With the support of eleven members of board of directors, I wish to assure them that Apex is now on its way to a one-stop medical destination.
WRITTEN BY PROF. UCHENNA NWOSU
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