A Pediatric Medical Mission Expands, Bringing Minimally Invasive Heart Care to Children in Nigeria

In Nigeria, a country of about 200 million people, the number of open-heart surgeries performed each year is remarkably low. According to the medical non-profit the VOOM Foundation, in the first four years of its mission work in Nigeria (2013-17) VOOM medical teams performed 169 open-heart procedures, more than the number of surgeries done nationally in Nigeria during the previous 26 years.

Since 2022 the VOOM Foundation has hosted international specialists for cardiac care missions at the Dame Irene Okwuosa Memorial Hospital in Oraifite, Nigeria. Columbia pediatric cardiac surgeon Dr. Andrew Goldstone has built a partnership with the foundation for their once-a-year pediatric missions, and for the past three years he has led a team of nurses and doctors to perform open heart surgeries on children and adolescents with congenital heart disease. During that time his team has performed almost 50 pediatric heart operations, with outstanding outcomes. This year cardiac catheterization specialist Dr. Oliver Barry joined the team to treat heart defects that could be repaired using minimally invasive approaches.

Over six days this past September Dr. Barry performed 10 procedures in the cath lab. “We decided for this first trip to do relatively simple and low risk, but meaningful procedures like atrial septal defect (ASD) and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) closures, necessary interventions that are one-time, permanent fixes,” he says. All ten patients did well and went home the day after their procedures, with no complications.

The Dame Irene Okwuosa Memorial Hospital was built with financial support from a Nigerian benefactor and designed specifically with cardiac mission trips in mind, and to train and educate the local staff and build a sustainable program. The hospital has brand new, state-of-the-art operating rooms and a cardiac cath lab, but lacks trained doctors and other personnel to do complex procedures and provide care immediately afterward. Drs. Goldstone and Barry organized a group of almost 50 people including ICU and cath lab nurses, technicians, and anesthesiologists—most of whom were from the pediatrics teams at NYP/Columbia.

Two companies donated the cath lab devices needed for the trip, and when combined with all the surgical and ICU equipment needed, the group brought more than a hundred boxes of equipment to Nigeria. “It took two days to get all the equipment to this rural area in Nigeria,” says Dr. Barry. “Then we just worked day and night, and slept at the hospital, and it was truly remarkable experience.”

The Columbia physicians worked with a local team to identify and diagnose cases ahead of their arrival, and on the first day saw patients who had arrived for screening and to confirm their diagnoses using the hospital’s two echocardiography machines. “Patients came to the hospital from as far as seven hours away,” Dr. Barry says, “and we had to make some tough calls and turned away cases that weren't appropriate. Over the next week we stretched every bit of our resources, and our people were working till all hours.”

In a nearby operating room Dr. Goldstone was also very busy. "We operated on 19 children with simple to more complex congenital heart disease during the week we were there,” he says, “and we trained three local surgeons and helped them perform a number of surgeries.”

Dr. Barry adds, “Our first interventional cardiology mission in Nigeria was wildly successful and the families were so grateful for the work that we did. We built a lot of momentum with this organization and developed this a real partnership with and investment in this hospital and local team. And with each trip we hope to get better and better.”

Read more about Dr. Goldstone's work with the VOOM Foundation here.