A good name, said King Solomon of old, is better than riches. With the birthday celebrations of healthcare celebrity, Babatunde Okewale, that truth has never been more obvious.
January 8 saw the addition of a year to the glorious years of the medical genius that is Babatunde Okewale, Nigeria’s very own ‘women doctor’, whose understanding of the female, infant and family dynamics has won him the admiration of many a practising physician. With his family and friends at hand to mark the day with him in his GRA, Lagos residence, Dr. Okewale was in the best of moods, bathing his guests with his congenial glow.
To those who do not know him too well, Dr. Babatunde Okewale is only that doctor whose remarkable intervention delivered Africa’s oldest In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) mother in childbirth, leading to the birth of her baby boy at the age of 67, a feat that unintentionally broke all kinds of records in the process.
Much longer than this miracle case of the woman who gave birth after 35 years, Dr. Okewale has had his heart set on serving humanity with a steady hand and a brandished scalpel. Since the establishment of his healthcare facility, St. Ives Specialist Fertility Centre in 1996, his emphasis that “it is every woman’s fundamental right to have babies, and age should not be a barrier” continues to gain traction.
More than two decades later, the healthcare centre has seen the delivery of over two thousand babies in their IVF unit, a number grows larger by the day on account of Dr. Okewale’s unique integration of care and compassion into the medical toolbox.
This has earned him recognition at various levels, one of the most renowned and recent being a Lifetime Achievement award at the prestigious City People Awards for Excellence, acknowledging Dr. Okewale’s contribution to the field of Medicine.
But more than an obstetrician and gynaecologist that Dr. Okewale is, he is also a philanthropist – a fitting aspect he demonstrated on his birthday when he donated millions of naira into his foundation. Unsurprisingly, he was the subject of many prayers, goodwill, and gifts of love and appreciation.
