25 / 67
CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Vol 24, No 2, March 2013
AFRICA
23
an oral anticoagulant monitoring service in a multiethnic developing
country.
Int J Lab Hematol
2008;
30
(6): 531–535.
32. Suarez-Kurtz G, Botton MR. Pharmacogenomics of warfarin in
populations of African descent.
Br J Clin Pharmacol
2012 Jun 7. doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2125.2012.04354.x. [Epub ahead of print]
33. Ramirez AH, Shi Y, Schildcrout JS, Delaney JT, Xu H, Oetjens MT,
et al
. Predicting warfarin dosage in European-Americans and African-
Americans using DNA samples linked to an electronic health record.
Pharmacogenomics
2012;
13
(4): 407–418.
34. McLellan RA, Drobitch RK, Monshouwer M, Renton KW.
Fluoroquinolone antibiotics inhibit cytochrome P450-mediated micro-
somal drug metabolism in rat and human.
Drug Metab Dispos
1996;
24
: 1134–1138.
35. McMillin GA, Vazquez SR, Pendleton RC. Current challenges in
personalizing warfarin therapy.
Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol
2011;
4
(3):
349–362.
… continued from page 4
Ibadan. In 1987 he was promoted to professor of Cardiothoracic
Surgery and then became head of the Department of Surgery, and
dean of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences and Dentistry. He was
appointed chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee and
director of Clinical Services of the University College Hospital.
It will be recalled that as part of his passion for promoting
excellence, he initiated the delivery of the faculty lecture, which
has persisted till now.
Undaunted by the fact that the facilities available in the
country for the most part only permitted palliative intervention
for many of the conditions he had spent the better part of his
life training to manage through definitive intervention, it was
noteworthy that he returned to the country’s fledging healthcare
delivery services. He resisted the lure to ‘check out’ and leave for
greener pastures in the lean years of our economy.
No wonder he had such a passion for training a critical crop
of indigenous cardiothoracic surgeons who will provide the
much-needed services to the country. It is to his credit that he
was instrumental and to a large measure the driving force for
the establishment of a training curriculum for cardiothoracic
surgery in both the West African College of Surgeons and the
Faculty of Surgery of the National Postgraduate Medical College
of Nigeria.
Locally, against many odds, he would unfailingly be in the
operating room, ‘knife to skin’ at 7.30 am. He was part of the
team of cardiothoracic surgeons that pioneered open-heart
surgery in Ibadan. Others included Profs Grillo, Adebonojo
and Osinowo. They spent out-of-pocket funds in organising and
training perfusionists and operating room and intensive care
nurses, using canine models in collaboration with the veterinary
faculty, for performing cardiopulmonary bypass procedures.
Between 1979 and 1980 the team went on to perform five
cardiopulmonary bypass interventions, four of which were
successful.
Other surgeons who had been on the scene earlier included
Profs JohnWeaver, Fabian Udekwu and Michael Bankole. Others
who participated included Prof Olufemi Jaiyesimi (paediatric
cardiologist), Prof Ayodele Falase (adult cardiologist), Prof
Olufunsho Akinyemi (anaesthetist) and Prof Taiwo Kolawole
(radiologist). The government of the day unfortunately did not
accord this priority attention and it was not possible to sustain
this noble venture. Prof Adebo worked with the renowned French
cardiac surgeon in Paris, Prof Carpentier in making mitral
valve repair a viable option to replacement in the management
of patients with mitral valve disease, especially from chronic
rheumatic heart disease.
ProfAdebo retired from the University of Ibadan in September
2009 after several years of meritorious service but such was the
demand for him that the newly established Bowen University
went all out to get him as provost of their College of Health
Sciences in Iwo as well as chief medical director of their teaching
hospital in Ogbomosho. It is to his credit that the University
secured the necessary Nigerian University commission as well
as the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria accreditations for
its MB BS programme.
In the ‘external cardiovascular healthcare arena’ Prof Adebo
was one of the delegates from 24 African countries in attendance
at the conference in Badagry, Lagos, Nigeria in 1981 when the
Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) was born. He
was therefore a foundation member of PASCAR. Along with
Prof Ayodele Falase, Femi Jaiyesimi, Asuquo Antia, Adebonojo,
Peter Odiambo and Quarte, to mention but a few, he worked
assiduously within the organisation from its infancy to ensure
that it took firm roots in as many African countries as possible.
This organisation was formed in response to the near total lack
of interest in cardiovascular disorders by many health authorities
on the continent. The aims and objectives set out in 1981 were to:
•
promote activities relating to the prevention and treatment of
cardiovascular disease
•
promote the education and training of cardiovascular disease
personnel
•
pursue health education programmes relevant to the field of
cardiology
•
encourage cardiovascular research by the formation of an
African Heart Foundation, which will ultimately fund and
coordinate relevant research activities on the continent. These
were very much in line with his aspirations and passion for
cardiovascular healthcare development on the continent.
When PASCAR suffered some setbacks and was in need of
reviving, again he was part of the team that gathered in Accra,
Ghana in 2004 to put the organisation back on track. Sometimes
self-effacing, he was unlike most surgeons I know, very humble
despite his well-known reputation as a meticulously careful
and successful surgeon. He was elected Vice President West of
PASCAR that year and in 2009 elected president, a position he
held until he departed this world on 22 September 2012.
In the conduct of the affairs of PASCAR, his principled and
fair approach was well known to all. His wisdom and wealth of
experience was often brought to bear in difficult circumstances.
He was very down to earth in his approach to practical issues
continued on page 27…