By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
Increasing cases of surgical and medical errors, leading to deaths and litigations in court, can be linked to the diminished attention to anatomical education during the undergraduate and postgraduate years at medical schools.
This was the postulation of a human anatomist, Professor Oluwole Busayo Ajibola, who while delivering the 213th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ilorin, cited a recent example in Adamawa State, where a medical doctor failed to correctly diagnosed the illness of Hamma on a patient and went ahead to carry out surgical operation on him.
Akinola said that the doctor, in the cause of the operation, removed an organ he could not identify in the patient and he, the patient, later died from the ”anatomical error.”
In his lecture titled: ‘Human Anatomy; Beyond Flesh And Bone,’ the professor told his audience that anatomy remains the foundation and the backbone of medicine and surgery, that could not be wished away.
He therefore canvassed for deep knowledge and teaching of anatomy in medical schools, which should be basic in medical practice, because it allows practioners to know the full science of the human body that preceeds diagnonising and treatment of sicknesses.
Such sicknesses include anthropometeic exremes, leading to obesity and hypothermia, which is related to cardiac issues.
Others are reproductive issues leading to infertility in male and females, brain developmental defects, as well as brain and mental health and the bad effects of the uncontrolled mining activities on the health of the people in the environments where it is carried out.
Professor Akinola therefore said that mining activities do not only assist insecurity in some parts of the country, but is also of health concerns, leading to high morbidity and mortality, which the government must quickly address.
He also canvassed for improvement and continuity of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP, in the best interest of pupils in public schools.
Similarly, he called for a continuation of the running of Bachelor’s degree in Anatomy by the universities, courtesy of the National Universities Commission, NUC, as well as a renewed reserch efforts in the medical field.
The inaugural lecturer finally canvassed for a stop of the general beliefs that blames infertility solely on females, asking that males too should make themselves available for medical attention, while diabetic patients should desist from self medications.
He called the attention of the general public to the fact that functional defects of the brain could arise from exposure to toxins and that ingestion of certain food substances during pregnancies could cause foetal brain damages.
