Cowlso Donates Icu Equipment To Island Maternity, Others

The Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO, has donated an ultra-modern Intensive Care Unit to the Lagos Island Maternity, where the wife of the governor and chairman of the committee, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode, promised that they would continue to partner the government, to end mother and child mortality in the state.

The project was the focus of COWLSO’s health intervention for this year, along with neo-natal hearing screening equipment donated to Gbagada General Hospital, Ikorodu General Hospital, Badagry General Hospital and Ifako-Ijaiye General Hospital, all in Lagos State.

Mrs. Ambode noted that late referral of emergency baby delivery cases from traditional birth attendants and faith-based homes to government’s health facilities, had become a major challenge, requiring the services of an ICU, to save endangered mothers and their babies.

She said: ‘Now and then, we hear of many pregnant women and their babies dying of conditions such as pregnancy-induced hypertension, convulsion or shock arising from post-delivery bleeding. A good number of such cases come in extreme conditions, which without the existence of a well-equipped intensive care unit, death seems inevitable for the mother, baby or both’.

‘Here lies the wisdom in COWLSO’s intervention, in upgrading and strengthening the existing High Dependency Unit, to an ultra-modern Intensive Care Unit, to cope with increased number and complexity of emergency cases’, she stressed.

She disclosed that the gesture by the committee had the potential to save mothers and babies, as well as ease financial pressure on families.

According to her, “This support therefore, has the potential to save mothers and babies, as well as ease financial pressure on families that may need the services.

‘COWLSO in the present dispensation is fully committed to the safe Motherhood Project and partnering the health facilities, to ensure that no life is lost in pregnancy and during delivery”.

The ICU commissioned is equipped with state-of-the-art modern facilities such as humidifier, multi parameter monitors, portable multi parameter monitor and volumetric infusion pump. Others are portable suction unit, blood fluid/warmer, automatic external defibrillator, marquet servo air intensive care ventilators, ICU Beds, pressure relief mattress and pump amongst others.

The COWLSO chairman said that the committee also decided to consolidate on its last year’s Ear, Nose and Throat intervention, by targeting the preventive aspect of hearing impairment, disclosing that neo-natal hearing screening equipment were procured for those general hospitals, to enable early screening of newborns for possible hearing defects.

She said: ‘According to the World Health Organization, sixty per cent of childhood hearing loss is preventable, hence our continuous intervention. The consequences of not addressing hearing loss in children include difficulty in speech acquisition, delayed language development, academic under achievement, social isolation, higher risk injuries and increased poverty’.

‘According to audiologists, the most important way to address this disability is by early examination of newborns. This is done by a test called ‘neo-natal hearing screening’’, she disclosed.

The COWLSO chairman, who brimmed with joy at the realization of the project, commended the cooperation and support of COWLSO members, the health institutions and equipment suppliers, while urging expectant mothers to always use ante-natal services for smooth baby delivery.

In his own remarks, the commissioner for health, Dr. Jide Idris, who noted that the Island Maternity recorded about 400 deliveries monthly, promised that professional update courses would be provided to run the unit, hinting that the state’s Strategic Health Development Plan, envisioned the phased creation of zonal High Dependency Units, to serve emergency obstetric cases.

The commissioner added that, the revamping of the audiology unit of the ENT clinic at the General Hospital Lagos, last year by COWLSO, has had tremendous positive impact on residents with hearing impairment from cradle to adults.

He commended the committee for the noble gesture, calling on well-meaning individuals and groups, to emulate them by partnering the government in the mission to provide quality health care services to the citizenry.

Also speaking, chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Health, Hon. Segun Olulade, showered praises on COWLSO, for complementing the efforts of the government, to achieve new levels of healthcare delivery for Lagosians.

He said: ‘I must confess that COWLSO, has introduced a new dimension to humanitarian service. I can still remember when the committee donated the first state-of-the-art Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) equipment to the General Hospital Odan and conducted major goiter surgery for over 30 adults’.

He implored expectant mothers to take full advantage of the facilities and urged health workers to handle them with care.

Responding on behalf of the general hospitals that received the hearing screening equipment, the medical director of Ikorodu General Hospital, Dr. Bankole Olufunmilayo, copiously praised COWLSO and the governor’s wife for the intervention, stressing that the instruments would enable the benefitting hospitals screen the newborns for possible hearing defects.

Folashade Kadiri (Mrs.)
Asst. Director Public Affairs
Office of the Wife of the Governor of Lagos State