Foremost Nigerian paediatrician, Prof. Winifred Kaine of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State, has passed on at the age of 85.
Born in May 1933, to the family of late Justice Hyacinth Uchenna Kaine at Ossomala in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra, Prof. Kaine attended the St. Mathias Catholic Primary School, Lafiaji, Lagos and later moved to Holy Child College, Ikoyi, Lagos where she made grade I in 1950.
With the burning desire to become a medical doctor, young Winnie proceeded to the Holy Child College, Blackpool, England in 1951 and later the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London, the
Postgraduate medical college and the Institute of Child Health, of the same London University where she graduated as a medical doctor in 1958.
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Upon returning to Nigeria in 1965, Prof. Kaine, fondly addressed by her colleagues as the doyen of paediatric medicine, worked briefly at University of Ibadan before joining the General Hospital, Enugu, (now University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital) during which she established the first department of paediatrics, in the then Eastern Nigeria.
A burial programme released by the family showed that there would be a wake on Tuesday 27th November at her constitution Road residence, GRA Enugu and a mass and valedictory session the next day at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital.
On Friday, 30th November, 2018, there would be a flag stop at ESUT Teaching Hospital, Enugu while on Saturday, December 1st, her body will leave Boromeo hospital, Onitsha, to lie in state at Nnam Ossomala, Anambra State and quickly followed by internment, after mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Ossomala.