Tony Anenih reveals how he survived eight-hour heart surgery

Former Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, yesterday, was the cynosure of all eyes as he narrated how divine providence spared his life after he underwent an eight-hour heart surgery in a London hospital last year.

In a thought–provoking testimony which he rendered at the special thanksgiving service held in his honour to mark his miraculous survival, Anenih said a team of seven medical doctors who were carefully selected to undertake the surgery had written him off as a bad case, but God proved them wrong at the end of the day.

Anenih, an astute politician popularly called “Mr. Fix It” in recognition of his prowess in the murky waters of politics waxed spiritual when he mounted the pulpit to give his testimony.

He said that some time in September, 2015 he had travelled to London for medical care particularly to remove the cataract that had developed in his eyes.

According to him, it was while he was still in London that he discovered that he had a problem with his heart and was rushed in an ambulance to an undisclosed hospital.

The testimony goes thus: “There is nothing God cannot do for you if you believe in him. If you believe in him sincerely, if 200 Anenih’s are telling you, you won’t reach there and God says you will reach and pass there, the 200 people will be wasting their time. But you have to believe in God; the only person who will be with you when you are in a very critical condition.

“I had a surgery that took eight hours and the seven doctors who were carefully selected because of their experience, to operate on me because I had a problem with my heart. The major artery that carries blood to the heart got busted when I got to London.

“The seven doctors told Dr Uzo, to my hearing, that I was not going to make it. I now said: This is the door to the theatre, if I am not going to make it, I better go back to my flat. It’s about 7 O’ Clock and there is 11 O’ Clock flight to go back to Abuja. Abuja – Benin and then Uromi. It will be cheaper for my children. But on a second thought, I said God brought me here. I didn’t come to do heart surgery; I came to remove cataract in my eyes. Is it possible for me to be here without a reason? And to the hearing of the seven doctors, I said to Dr Uzo: Take my clothes and my shoes and give to my son and that God that has brought me here all the way from Abuja will take me into the mortuary alive, he will bring me out alive. The seven doctors looked at me and smiled, rolled my bed into the theatre and closed the door.

“When they finished, they were surprised that a surgery that took eight hours and they removed two arteries from my body, when they connected the new valve to the heart, the heart was functioning as if there was no surgery. Anyway, the doctors said they did not believe that the heart will continue to work; they believe that it will stop. They sent me to the Intensive Care Unit ( ICU), maybe from there to the mortuary. I slept for 22 hours without waking up. The Chief Medical Director was waiting for the bad news that the man had gone. After 22 hours from the time of the surgery, I woke up. A nurse went and told the Chief Medical Director that: That man has woken up. He said, stop it . You don’t know what you are talking about. You mean the Nigerian, he woke up? He didn’t believe it.

“He came to my bed and said: Chief, how are you? I said, doctor, I am very fine. He now asked me: Have you started having pains all over your body? I said: I have no pain. He said what of the operation? I said, doctor you have not done the operation. I’ve slept now for about two hours. I thought I just got there. When are you going to do the operation? He now told me that they did the operation, 23 hours ago. He told me that this hospital is 150 years old and that this is the first miracle God was performing there. That was a year and two months ago,” he said amidst a spontaneous applause from the congregation.

The thanksgiving service which held at Our Lady, Queen of Nigeria, Pro-Cathedral Catholic Church, Garki, Abuja, attracted several dignitaries including former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan; former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme; former Minister of Information and Culture, Prof. Jerry Gana; former Minister of Works, Chief Mike Onolememen as well as Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man.

They all filed out to join Anenih and his family in thanking God for sparing the life of the octogenarian. The bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan who presided over the holy mass alongside other officiating priests acknowledged the contributions of Anenih to the church and admonished him to remain steadfast with God al the remaining days of his life.

“If top notch doctors confessed that they have seen a miracle, they should know that these miracles are happening everyday in their hospitals. It is not only when Chief comes that God does miracles.

“When God goes out of his way to bring back an octogenarian from a serious sickness, it must be for a reason. I therefore want to repeat the message that God has not finished with you and obviously, you have not finished with God yet. May the Lord continue to direct you. Everyday is a gift from God. May we be able to make the best use of it,” Onaiyekan said.