Sacred Heart Hospital, Lantoro Abeokuta is the first Nigerian hospital which was established in 1895 by the Catholic Church mission to Abeokuta through Reverend Father Coquard as a result of the leprosy epidemic that affected Egbaland between 1857 and 1859. It is located at Itesi, Abeokuta. Louisa Rodriguez was a Brazilian nurse who assisted Coquard for about 36 years serving as the director of nursing. Coquard had one year of instruction as a medical student before he joined the missionary.
The hospital was relocated to Lantoro in 1971 by Archbishop Aggey.
It is a 300 bedded hospital that serves the southwestern part of Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. It trains nursing students and postgraduate doctors in Family Medicine.
References
- Dioka, L. C. (2001). Lagos and Its Environs. First Academic. ISBN 978-978-34902-5-3.
- "Nigeria's first hospital gets orphanage centre". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2019-04-29. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
- "Highs and lows of some of Nigeria's first institutions". Punch Newspapers. 2018-09-29. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
- "The Nigerian Victory Against The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and 1897 Smallpox Epidemic". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2020-03-29. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
- Hogan, Edmund M. (2012). Cross and Scalpel: Jean-Marie Coquard Among the Egba of Yorubaland. African Books Collective. ISBN 978-978-081-287-4.
- Sofoluwe, G. O.; Schram, R.; Ogunmekan, D. A. (1996). Principles and Practice of Public Health in Africa. University Press. ISBN 978-978-2490-32-2.
- Abeokuta: Home of the Egba. VBO International. 1985.
- Olusanya, Abiodun; Oguntoyinbo, Omobolaji (2020). "The Place of Transcervical Amnioinfusion in the Management of Preterm Premature Rupture of membranes Remote from Term in a Private Institution" (PDF). London Journal of Medical and Health Research. 20 (1): 17.