YOUNGSTOWN Forum assists Nigerian hospital

The doctor helped found a medical center in Nigeria.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Dr. Uchenna Nwosu spent a portion of his Tuesday continuing to fulfill a commitment he made to his native land.
Dr. Nwosu, a local obstetrician and gynecologist at Forum Health, created the Apex Medical Center in Nigeria to help surrounding communities and improve the health status of underserved people in that African nation.
He stood outside a West Side warehouse to oversee the loading of medical supplies to be shipped back home to help his people.
"I swore that if I ever became a doctor, I would go back and open up a hospital," said Dr. Nwosu.
Relationship: Apex Medical Center has a sister-hospital relationship with Forum Health, which has donated medical supplies to the African medical facility. The equipment being sent to Nigeria is from the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center and would have been discarded.
Besides money, Forum Health is donating the medical supplies so they will be put to good use.
"Forum Health was all for the project from the start. We are happy to help Dr. Nwosu with the supplies," said Phyllis Cross, director of environmental services at Forum Health.
Dr. Nwosu's goals for the hospital are to organize training programs for the hospital personnel and assist other hospitals in that region. After the supplies are sent, he will return to Africa for three months to help get the hospital up and running.
Apex Medical Center is at Igbo-Ukwu, and two annexes are at Uga and Nkwelle-Ezunaka in southeastern Nigeria. The center and annexes are part of Apex Hospitals.
Praise: They are held in the highest esteem by the communities they serve and by Forum Health because of the quality care they provide and their emphasis on health promotion, Forum Health officials said.
"You cannot say enough about what Dr. Nwosu has done for the medical center because that hospital would not have been built if it hadn't been for him," said Dr. Tom E. Campbell, chairman of Forum Health's pathology department.
Over the years, Apex Hospitals and community leaders have organized health education campaigns on hypertension, diabetes, immunization, family planning and cervical cancer screening.
"I am very excited with the annex project and I hope to make a difference in the communities we reach," said Dr. Nwosu. "I'm also very grateful to have good people over at Forum Health who support my efforts and who back me 100 percent."
The medical supply program is sponsored by American Friends Foundation for African Health Care Services.
Dr. Nwosu graduated from Harvard College and Boston University of Medicine. In addition to working at Forum Health, he also is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown.
He joined the University of Ife in Africa as a senior lecturer in 1977, and was shortly promoted to professor and head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology. He resigned in 1981 to found the Apex Medical Center at Igbo-Ukwu, and remained the center's medical director until returning to the United States in 1990.