THE recent kidney transplant feat by the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) may have started causing some rancour among the top management staff of the hospital.
The UITH sources told The Guardian on Friday in Ilorin that some of the high ranking professors of surgery in the hospital are not particularly happy with the development as many of them were not allegedly involved in the processes that led to the breakthrough.
It would be recalled that recently, the renal clinic section of the UITH had carried out a successful kidney transplant, (first of its kind in the hospital) on a patient Solomon Momah, a 29 years old man from Delta State.
The development was tagged a rare achievement as the hospital was listed among the very few ones in the world that got right the process at its first attempt. Momah had since been discharged from the renal ward of the hospital.
A source said: "Many of these professors are not happy with the feat. In fact, many of them had thought that without their involvement the exercise would be in futility but when the success became a reality they wanted their names mentioned among those who made the breakthrough.
"But the Chief Medical Director of the UITH, Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo insisted on not attributing the achievement to them. Olatinwo cited ethics and moral factors as grounds for excluding them, adding that those who did not participate in a thing should not get the credit that do not belong to them. These people have now declared total war on the CMD. They are envious of the modest achievement of the hospital under his leadership."
Olatinwo said he was not totally in the picture, describing staffers of the hospital as purely professional persons who would not even want their names publicised even if they had participated in the kidney transplantation.
According to the hospital boss, "we can't rule out envy in any normal human being. But I don't think the feat by the UITH was by any individual, the kidney transplant was a collective effort of all. The cleaners are not even left out. So, I do not see what could be responsible for any rift over what we all achieved by the grace of God.
"I will investigate your claims and where we find it so we will apply the needed weapon to correct and rebuke it. We are one big family here and we all have equal stake.
"We are medical persons under an oath and therefore we cannot decide to advertise ourselves if we still want to practise this profession."
