By Ingram Osigwe
Attaining the golden age is a no mean milestone. This is why Dr. Chinwe Muomalu (nee Nwaozuzu) has every reason to be grateful to God.
Many who were born on the same day and year as her are no longer here; Dr. Muomalu, a serial entrepreneur and erudite medical practitioner, recognizes this fact and is thankful to God for being the anchor of her life these 50 years.
Having just hit the golden age, friends and associates cannot stop heaping elegant tributes and kind words on this quintessentially beautiful woman, mother and wife whose career trajectory and progression are both salutary and inspiring.
Born in April 1973 at Nsukka in present-day Enugu State, to Prof. and Prof. Mrs. B.S.C. Nwaozuzu, Dr. Muoamalu attended the University Primary School, Nsukka, and from there proceeded to the Federal Government Girls College, Owerri.
She graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, School of Medicine, Enugu Campus, after which she proceeded to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital for a residency programme in paediatrics.
Dr. Muomalu later became a consultant and Fellow of the National College of Paediatrics sailing through the very demanding residency training programme in record time.
She also has a master’s degree in International Public Health from the University of Liverpool and a diploma in Hospital Administration from the University of Washington, USA.
Dr. Muomalu is passionate about saving lives. This has seen her, in the course of her medical career, transverse several medical establishments and held very important leadership positions, including the head of clinicals, Balm Hospital, Lagos, and chief medical director, Outreach Women and Children’s Hospital, Lagos.
She was the pioneer medical director and chief operating officer of the Obijackson Women and Children’s Hospital, where she served a dual role as a consultant paediatrician and neonatalogist, thus debunking the false assumptions that hospital administrators are too busy to perform their clinical duties.
Her love for neonatology has led to remarkable feats in the area of preterm care, where she has continued to play a central role in the nursing care of premature babies with birth weights as low as 600g and has been a central figure in the successes currently being enjoyed by the internationally acclaimed neonatal intensive care units in the South East.
Dr. Muomalu is the initiator and facilitator of the WHO Helping Babies Breath programme and has trained over 1,000 midwives and doctors in the skills needed to rescucitate newborns.
She has championed various workshops for health workers, in partnership with Nestle Training Institute and Freisland Campina Training Institute, and continues to work closely with them in developing training curricula for health professionals.
Having worked in several government and private health institutions, offering her sound professional expertise, Dr. Moumalu has decided to take her practice to the greatest height by co-founding a state-of-the-art, well-equipped private medical facility, Cradle and Mum Specialist Hospital.
Located in the New Owerri axis of the Imo State capital, a serene neighbourhood ideal for total relaxation and recuperation of the sick babies and their mothers, Cradle and Mum Specialist Hospital is designed to care for the mother and child with bias for the care of preterm babies and respiratory support for newborns.
The hospital is manned by seasoned paediatricians, neonatologists, paediatric surgeons, obstetricians and highly skilled paediatric nurses and midwives, among other supporting staff.
The mission of Cradle and Mum Hospital is to provide holistic care to the vulnearable population of women and children, with the aim of contributing positively to the downward trend of maternal and under-five mortality in Nigeria.
Aside from that, the hospital also serves as a training hub for community health workers around the environs and is deeply engaged in community outreache aimed at educating women on the need to develop a robust health-seeking behaviour that will ensure that they have a safe delivery when pregnant as well as healthy children after the babies are born.
This accounts for the reason Cradle and Mum is fantastically equipped with modern medical facilities comparable to what is obtained in Western countries.
Notably, the hospital consists of 20-bed wards, made up of three general wards, two semi-private wards and a private ward.
In addition, the facility is equipped with a state-f-the-art neonatal intensive care unit comprising four neonatal incubators, two radiant warmers, seven cots and C-pap respiratory support machines.
Each unit is equipped with medical monitors, infusion pumps and syringe pumps. The unit is also equipped with modern Drager Phototherapy machines and boasts of a fully piped oxygen unit that ensures continued oxygen delivery to the babies in the ICU.
The theatre, which supports the maternal unit, is equipped with a state-of-the-art double unit anaesthetic machine and oxygen piped units.
The laboratory department is fully equipped to provide the much needed support to the hospital and carries out haematologic, chemical pathology and microbiology investigation, while the blood bank ensures continious supply of blood to the hospital.
The CSSD department is equipped with a full laundromat and a functional sterilisation unit boasting of two Autoclave machines.
And to ensure that Cradle and Mum provides a home away from home, there is an inhouse cafeteria that caters to the needs of in-patients and out-patients.
The big playground equipped with toys is also available for children on admission, with sitting areas where parents can watch their kids play.
The hospital also boasts of a 24-hour power supply consisting of EEDC supply, generator and a solar system.
Dr. Muomalu does not allow her career to interfere with her home as a dutiful mother and wife. She has been married since 2001, to her high school sweetheart, Barr. Okey Muomalu, from Akokwa, Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State.
A doting mother and loving wife, Dr. Muomalu adores her husband and kids. She describes her husband aptly as “the wind beneath my wings.” And for her beautiful children, among whom are upconing medical doctors and engineers, Dr. Muomalu calls them “my shining armours and precious gifts from God.”
She combines her medical practice with entrepreneurship, hence, she is the founder and CEO of Paedville British Schools in Isolo, Lagos, which has, since inception, grown into two campuses with the inclusion of the primary sector.
The entrepreneur in Dr. Muomalu was visible for everybody to see during her studentship and as a resident doctor in LUTH when she would travel to the United Kingdom on a business trip on Friday night after ward rounds and still be present for her ward rounds by 8am on Monday.
A devout Catholic, Dr. Muomalu believes in the mantra “do unto others what you would want them to do to you.” Her greatest desire is to serve God through works of mercy in the health industry.
•Osigwe writes from Akokwa, Imo State