Fabian Udekwu
Fabian
Anene Ositadimma Udekwu M.D. (1928 – 17 November 2006) was a medical
doctor, cardiac surgeon, distinguished professor
of surgery at the University of
Nigeria Nsukka,
and a pioneer of open heart surgery in Africa.
Education
Prof.
Udekwu was born in Enugu-Agidi, Anambra State, Nigeria. He attended St. Charles Teachers
Training College Onitsha where he was retained as a
faculty member after graduation in 1947, teaching mathematics and geography.[1] He did his London Matriculation Exams by
correspondence and after having been able to save enough money he proceeded in
1950 to the United States for further studies. He did his pre medical studies
in biology, chemistry and physics in Los Angeles.[2] Subsequently he attended the Loyola
University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, graduating as a medical doctor in 1957 and
specialising in general cardiac and thoracic surgery in 1964.[3][4] He did his surgical training at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.[2] Fabian Udekwu was the first fully certified
cardiothoracic surgeon in Nigeria.[5] He was a fellow of the American College
of Surgeons,
the American
Association for Thoracic Surgery, the International
College of Surgeons
and the West
African College of Surgeons.[6] Udekwu was a founding member and fellow of
the Nigerian Academy
of Science.[7]
Career
Udekwu
returned to Nigeria in 1965 as paediatric thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon
at the University
College Hospital of
the University of Ibadan.[5] He fled from Ibadan to Biafra at the outbreak of hostilities that marked the beginning
of the Nigeria-Biafra war.[8] From 1967, he served as a military surgeon
and head of the Biafran teaching hospital in various locations including Enugu and Emekukwu during the war.[9] He was also the secretary to the Biafran Relief and Rehabilitation Association during
the war.[10] Later Udekwu was distinguished professor and head of department of
surgery of the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka
Teaching Hospital (UNTH) and was the administrative head of the Enugu campus of
the university.[2] Udekwu is credited with building up the
department of surgery of the University of Nigeria.[2] After several unsuccessful attempts at
sourcing funding to establish a modern surgical department from many
organisations in the United States, United Kingdom, Scandinavia and through
church aid, he was able to scrape together funding from the Enugu campus aided
by the contributions of individual Nigerians to build the operating theater and
buy the equipment needed to establish facilities for open heart surgery in
Nigeria.[2] He was one of the pioneers that established
cardiac surgery in Nigeria.[11] Professor Udekwu led the team of surgeons
that performed the first successful open heart surgery in Nigeria in 1974[12] which was the first of its kind in black
Africa.[2] Also in the team of surgeons that performed
this landmark operation were Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, Professors Anyanwu C.H., Nwafor D.C., the
anaesthetist Dr. Shreeniwas Jawalekar and others.[13][14][15] This was followed by a series of six further
open heart surgeries under Udekwu at the University of Nigeria Teaching
Hospital Enugu (UNTH) between 1974 and 1980.[16]
Private life
Udekwu
was an avid sportsman, playing football and tennis throughout his life. He was
a member of the Enugu Sports Club. He also played music as a hobby attaining
notability as the organist and choirmaster at the Holy
Ghost Cathedral Enugu.
On 28 April 1956 Udekwu was married to Miss Anna Brita Bystrom. The marriage was
blessed with ten children.[17]
Publications
- A Medical Holiday in Nigeria.[18]
- Pancreatic Pseudocyst in Children[19]
- Pulmonary aspergilloma: report of two cases from Nigeria.[20]
- Determination of total body water with tritium oxide, FAO Udekwu, PD Kozoll, KA Meyer – Journal of nuclear Medicine, 1963
- Aneurysm of the left pulmonary artery with hemoptysis and bronchial obstruction.[21]
- Initial experience with open-heart surgery in Nigeria, Anyanwu CH, Ihenacho HNC, Okoroma EO, Nwafo DC, Umeh BU, Okechukwu CC, Udekwu FA. Cardiologie Tropicale, Tropical Cardiology 1982;8:123–7.
- Studies of an alveolar soft tissue sarcoma.[22]
- Renal angiomyolipoma. Clinical and pathological study.[23]
- Traumatic aneurysms and arteriovenous fistulas in Nigeria.[24]
- Clinical aspects of pulmonary and pleural carcinoma in Nigeria.[25]
- Teratoma of the thyroid gland.[26]
- Black grain mycetoma due to Madurella mycetomi: a case report from the East Central State of Nigeria.[27]
- Ascending aortic aneurysm causing pulmonary stenosis.[28]
- Odeku, E. L.; Antia, A. U.; Udekwu, F. A. O. (1970). "Persistent ascites following infected ventriculoperitoneal shunt". W Afr Med J. 19: 72–73.
Notes
· Jacob Ukeje Agwu
( 1925–2008 ) A Brief History of His Life, biographical article, Nigeriamasterweb,
retrieved 27 June 2013
· · White, Sarah (25 July 1974). A professor`s dilema (63 number 907 ed.). New
Scientist. p. 196. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
· Adebonojo, Samuel. "DEVELOPMENT OF OPEN HEART
SURGERY IN WEST AFRICA: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE" (PDF). Retrieved 2 December
2015.
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