A renowned Nigerian medical doctor, Professor Oluyinka Olutoye, who has distinguished himself in the field of paediatric surgery has been appointed as the Surgeon-In-Chief at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio, United States.
Prior to this appointment, Olutoye had received much recognition for performing and mastering ground-breaking EXIT surgical procedure. Exit procedure or ex utero intrapartum treatment procedure is a specialised surgical delivery procedure used to deliver babies who have airway compression.
Also In 2016, Prof. Olutoye, became a global phenomenon when he led a team of doctors in the surgery that saved a 23-week old foetus from a life-threatening tumour. The team brought the baby (Lynlee Hope) out of the womb at 23 weeks old and removed a large tumor (Sacrococcygeal Teratoma) growing on her tail bone, after which they returned the foetus to its mother’s womb to complete the full gestation period of nine months. This feat has generated a worldwide recognition of the baby that was born twice.
These and several achievements of Olutoye and his team, no doubt, were what led to his new position as the surgeon-in-chief at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which is one of the largest and most comprehensive paediatric hospitals and research institutes in the United States.
According to the Chief Medical Officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Richard J. Brilli, MD, Olutoye, a medical degree graduate from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, will also be appointed professor and the E. Thomas Boles chair of pediatric surgery at The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine.
Born in Lagos to the family of Major General (rtd) Olufemi Olutoye and Prof Omotayo Olutoye on January 15 1967, Olutoye has five siblings, two brothers and three sisters. And it was his childhood dream to become a medical doctor.
Prof. Olutoye’s quest for excellence began at an early age. As a son of a soldier and an academic mother, he was introduced to a life that placed emphasis on excellence during his formative years. He had his primary education at the Lagos University Staff School and his secondary education at King’s College Lagos.
After his medical education in Nigeria, he relocated to the United States for further educational opportunities. He started his postgraduate education in paediatrics at the Howard University General Hospital. He received his PhD in Anatomy from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, in 1996. He completed his residency in general surgery at the Medical College of Virginia Hospital, Virginia Commonwealth University, and had his fellowship in paediatric surgery at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University Of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, USA.
