In a move to improve access to kidney care, the Government College Old Students Association, Ojo, Lagos State, on Sunday donated a dialysis machine to the General Hospital, Badagry.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that shortly before unveiling the dialysis machine, the president of the association, Atinuke Alex-Oni, said the equipment was a cleanser of dirty blood from the lungs.
“The machine removes dirty blood from your body, filters it through a dialyzer (artificial kidney) and returns the cleaned blood to your body.
“If you don’t have a good cleanser, that dirty blood goes up in your body, and the dirty blood will slowly poison all the organs in your body.
“If a decision has been made for you to be having dialysis, then you should be having dialysis at least three times a week.
“But unfortunately, we don’t have enough machines in Nigeria, it is sad to hear that people are queuing for three days for dialysis,” she said.
The president said she was happy to see the machine handed over to the management of the general hospital.
The Chairman, Planning Committee, GCOSA, Moye Olumide, said the committee had gone into a lot of effort to show that the donation became a reality.
“There were a lot of meeting processes and the like, getting the ministry to give us approval and getting a lot of things.
“We had to be physically present, but above all, we thank God that all of us are here today, we have all our seniors from abroad for this unveiling.
“We are grateful to the management of the hospital and a big thank you to the Lions Club. You have been very helpful and wonderful, you’ve made a lot of things happen.
“We want to continue having this partnership with you for a long time to come,” he said.
In his remarks, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Olatunde Bakare, said he was elated to witness the gesture.
NAN
