During VOOM Foundation's October 2026 Medical Mission, I will serve as the lead interventional cardiologist. My team and I, made up of volunteers from the United Kingdom and United States, will perform diagnostic and interventional cardiology procedures. We will train the local interventional cardiology team while also partnering with the open-heart surgical team to serve those in most desperate need. By training the on-ground team, we will make them more independent and hopefully soon they will be able to perform cases on their own.
We will serve individuals all across Nigeria who travel to the hospital. The majority of these individuals are unable to afford care, and VOOM Foundation is their only option to receive life-saving surgery. We serve this population because cardiac care in Nigeria is one of its weak points - our volunteer team with donated supplies is able to bridge this gap in both care and income level.
As an interventional cardiology team, we are hoping to perform between 20 and 30 procedures on top of the 20 open-heart surgery cases that will be performed. Both of our teams will be educating local cardiologists, surgeons, nurses, and technicians in high-quality care so that eventually we will create a program that can serve patients all year round.
Thank you to the Doximity foundation for the Travel Grant to participate in the VOOM foundation mission trip to Oraifite Anambra state in Nigeria from October 16-24, 2026. This allowed me to join a team of 30 volunteers from the United States and the United Kingdom to participate in a medical mission trip to the Dame Irene Okwuosa Medical center in Anambra state nigeria. In that week about 20 open heart surgeries were performed.
I was able to collaborate with a local team of cardiologists, nurses, Cath Lab techs, Echo tech , CT imagers to provide Interventional Cardiology services in the cardiac catheterization lab. We performed a number of preoperative coronary angiograms for patients with ascending aortic aneurysm in preparation for Bentall operations, simultaneous left and right heart catheterization for patients with constrictive pericarditis, coronary for patient with valvular heart Disease in anticipation of mitral valve surgery. We placed pulmonary artery catheters in. We also performed Percutaneous coronary interventions in two patients with severe coronary disease, one of whom was a 39 year-old young male who had to travel from the neighboring country of Bennin to access definite treatment for his lifestyle limiting ischemic symptoms. About 20 cases were done in the Cath Lab in a span of six days. I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in the care of indigent patients, collaborate with amazing local staff, build capacity, and also work with the phenomenal group of Cath Lab nurses from Norwich who were also instrumental to the success of our cases. I’m very thankful to be local consultant Cardiologists - Dr Chris Okorie and Dr Chuka Onyema and to VOOM foundation for providing amazing platform for this great work. This goes a long way to provide much needed Cardiovascular care for the people in southeast Nigeria.
Dates: October 16-24, 2026
Location:Oraifite, Anambra state, nigeria.
Site: Dame Irene Okwuosa Medical center
Services provided: Interventional Cardiology.
Collaborators: local Cardiologist, Cath Lab nurses, Cath Lab tech, echocardiogram images, pre-operative nurses, ICU team, CV Surgeons.
People impacted: local health workers (capacity build)
Population: indigent patients in Southeast nigeria and SW Benin.
