The Benjamin Olowojebutu Foundation said it is targeting 1000 women in 2019 for free surgeries on fibroid and breast lumps.
The foundation’s Executive Director and Founder, Dr Benjamin Olowojebutu who disclosed this to newsmen in Lagos, said the foundation also carried out 623 free surgeries in 2018 for women who could not afford to pay for the services.
Olowojebutu, a surgeon and the Medical Director of a Lagos-based Hospital, Liberty Life Hospital, said they have carried out 325 surgeries for fibroid and 105 for breast lumps.
“Also, 102 Cesarean section, 34 appendectomy and 57 ovarian cysts surgeries were done for free. We identified three major challenges that women in the rural areas are facing: they include superstitious beliefs about medical conditions, lack of access and inability to pay for healthcare services.
“These services are expensive; that is why out of passion, love and our own way of giving back to communities, we helped the women do their surgeries for free,” he said.
The director said there was urgent need for more organisations, health institutions and health practitioners to continue educating people in order to change thought processes about false ideologies and beliefs. According to him, these kinds of attitude expose people to quacks in
the society and this can be very debilitating to the health system in general.
Olowojebutu also urged people to make conscious effort to take responsibility for their health by exercising regularly, adopting proper eating habits and visiting the hospital, at least once in a year.
