Nigeria is far from being the poorest country in Africa, but it still has an average life expectancy of only 47.1 years, and infant mortality rate almost 20 times higher than that of the UK. “Where do Africans go for healthcare if they survive malaria, TB, and AIDS?” asked Dr. Seyi Oyesola at a TED presentation given in June 2007. If you need critical care of any sort – if you suffer trauma, hypertension, diabetes, burns, kidney disease, cardiac problems or cancer, or if you need routine surgery – appropriate facilities are just not available.
The many problems in providing intensive care in Nigeria include: infrastructure, lack of capacity, lack of knowledge in capacity that exists, lack of quality equipment, lack of maintenance of equipment that exists, lack of quality consumables, and fake and adulterated drugs. Using improvised equipment, Oyesola and a team of doctors from America went on a “mission” to Nigeria and conducted a number of open-heart surgeries.
Oyesola has now set up a company to provide basic tools which are appropriately priced for African hospitals, such as a portable “compact operating room” which can be configured for numerous different types of surgery and includes anaesthesia machines, operating lights, and equipment that is powered by solar panels, car batteries or pedals.