200 kids get free medical care in Osun
From Bertram Nwannekanma, Osogbo
ABOUT 200 indigent children suffering from various kinds of ailments in Osun hospitals benefited from free medical treatment under Children Special Clinics of Dr. Tina Slusher, a professor of paediatrics from the University of Louisville,
Kentucky in United States of America (USA). The two-day free medical scheme ended in Osogbo yesterday.
The special clinics facilitated by the Methodist Diocese of Ilesa Care and Support Project and Women and Children Development Initiative Foundation (WOCDIF), a pet project of the wife of Osun State governor, Mrs. Omolola Oyinlola, will also permit children with complicated ailments either referred to the United States of America for surgery or have specialists invited to Nigeria for their operations.
Slusher raised this hope while fielding questions from reporters in Osogbo.
Her words: "Children with severe cases of ailments that cannot be treated in Nigeria will either be flown to the United States for attention or have specialists invited to operate on them in Nigeria".
She described her involvement in the free treatment of children with various ailments as an act of love without any sentiment or monetary gains but her contribution to express the love of Jesus Christ.
According to Slusher, who is also a consultant paediatrician at Baptist Hospitals at Ogbomoso, Eku in Delta State and Jos, many indigent children from Ibadan, Oyo, Igboora, Ikole Ekiti and Ilesa had benefited from the clinics in the past, which she undertook during her yearly visits to Nigeria.
On the challenges since the inception of the clinics about 15 years ago at the instance of Rev. Ayo Ladigbolu, the arch bishop of Ilesa, Methodist Diocese, she pointed out the number of indigent children in need of medical care and shortage of medical personnel to attend to them.
Also speaking, Mrs. Oyinlola said her recent visit to the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH) Osogbo, where there was a large number of indigent children suffering from diverse kinds of ailments without care prompted her decision to invite Slusher whose humanitarian love of children was in line with the objectives of WOCDIF.
Oyinlola urged philanthropists in Nigeria to partner with government to ensure proper attention to indigent members of the public suffering from diseases especially children.
She also appealed to Slusher to make the free clinic a yearly event to check the suffering of the indigent.
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