By Esther Onyegbula

Few weeks ago, as part of Hospitals for Humanity’s surgical programme, the waiting room at Diamed Centre in Lagos did not feel like a hospital waiting area during the #SavingLittleHearts Open House.

It felt like a place suspended between fear and faith. Mothers clutched their children tightly. Fathers stared at their phones without really seeing them. Every slow footstep in the corridor sounded like a verdict.

This was where various medical and non-medical volunteers of Hospitals of Humanity (HfH) from home and abroad opened their doors, not just to perform free heart surgeries, but to let HfH partners, sponsors, donors and friends see the hidden battles families fight when a child is born with a failing heart.

In Nigeria, about 8 out of every 1,000 children are born with congenital heart defects. For many families, diagnosis is delayed. For most, treatment is financially impossible. For some, hope runs out before help arrives.
For families, the journey rarely begins with drama. It often begins with quiet denial.

Claire Somiari-Jaja remembers being told in 2015 that her newborn daughter, Sopirinye, had a hole in her heart. Doctors hoped it would close naturally. And for years, life seemed normal.

“She was active. She played table tennis. She danced. There was no cause for alarm,” Claire said.
Then in 2025, a simple complaint of leg pain led to a routine check. A doctor noticed her breathing. Listened to her chest. And heard the murmur.

In seconds, a peaceful childhood turned into a medical journey filled with tests, referrals, fear, and prayers.
“The news brought different emotions,” Claire recalled. “But the focus was that she had to get better.”

When she was referred to HfH and selected for free open-heart surgery, relief came, not just because it was free, but because skilled hands were finally within reach.

During her daughter’s surgery, Claire didn’t stay in the hospital corridors.
“I dressed up and went to church,” she said. “What better thing to do than praise God while she was in surgery?”

For Jennifer Oyoyo, fear came crashing in when her toddler, Zane, was diagnosed.
“At first, we questioned God,” she said. “Why us? Why now?”

The figures thrown at them were crushing, ₦7 million, ₦12 million, foreign travel costs. Sums they could not imagine raising. They borrowed, saved, cried, and ran from hospital to hospital.
Then came hope through referral to HfH. “When Dr. Queenette Daniels said, ‘I will help you,’ I wasn’t fully relieved. But I held onto it,” Jennifer said quietly.

“The day of surgery was a storm of emotions. Everywhere became dark for me,” she said.
“When Zane came out of theatre with tubes attached to his little body, I was afraid to step closer. It was too scary to see.”

Today, she smiles when she tells the story.
“I am so super happy that God has done this for me through Hospitals for Humanity.”

Most people only see the surgery photos. They never see the nights before diagnosis, when children gasp for air. When parents google symptoms in silence. When families sell property, borrow money, and sometimes give up their dreams just to give their child one more year.

HfH doesn’t just cut open chests and repair hearts. It repairs futures. Since launching its pediatric cardiac programme, HfH has carried out close to 300 successful surgeries in Nigeria, despite limited resources and numerous challenges. The goal is to reach 150 surgeries every year through their biannual missions in May and November, but the need grows faster than capacity.

Dr. Segun Ajayi, CEO and Founder of HfH, didn’t start this journey from comfort. He started from personal disappointment. He once fell critically ill in Nigeria and was admitted into a hospital regarded as one of the country’s best.

“That hospital wasn’t even comparable to the worst hospital in the United States,” he said.
That moment changed him. “I realised Nigeria had a better healthcare story to tell, and I wanted to be part of that story.”

From that experience came a vision not just to help, but to transform. “Every child deserves to live,” Dr. Ajayi said.

Speaking on behalf of HfH’s General Advisory Board, Mrs. Efe Farinre shared that HfH has a rolling list of over 1,000 children. “Sadly, some don’t survive long enough to receive help. That is why the current goal of Dr. Segun Ajayi is for HfH to build Africa’s first free paediatric cardiac hospital here in Lagos, with the support of committed partners.

This hospital will provide 24-hour critical care and the children will receive the treatment they need promptly, instead of having to wait for us to come on surgical missions. The hospital will not only give hope to children and families, it will elevate Nigeria’s health sector through knowledge transfer, specialised skill development and capacity building.”

One of the most remarkable and emotional moments of the #SavingLittleHearts Open House was not in the operating theatre, but in the hallway. An 11-year old survivor, Chimamanda Okore, walked up to a current patient who had just done her surgery. They talked. They laughed. They hugged. It was a living message: You will be okay.

Hospitals for Humanity survives through international donations, local sponsorships, partnerships, and the Circle of Friends made up of people giving the best they can in cash and in kind. Every donation becomes a heartbeat restored.

In a country where healthcare often feels like a luxury, HfH is quietly changing the narrative, one fragile heart at a time. For the families, it means more than survival. It means their children can run, laugh, dream, live.