On Sunday the 18th of January 2015,
marathon runners, majority of them health workers and students, took the path
from Mulago Hospital Nursing Hostel grounds to the Parliament. It was the Ebola Solidarity Run raising funds
towards Ebola control efforts. Uganda is not a country known for its financial clout,
but with our long and painful history with Ebola, we have to contribute what we
can, for we know what it means.
We have had 4 Ebola outbreaks with the first one in
2000/2001 in Gulu being the most catastrophic. Dr. Mathew Lukwiya and 23 other
Health workers died. In 2007 the Ebola outbreak claimed the lives of 5 health
workers including Dr. Jonah Kule. The 2012 Epidemic in Kibale claimed the life
of one Health worker, Ms. Clare T Muhumuza. The last outbreak was in 2012.
For me, the farthest outbreak from us so far, has been
the most painful. So many lives have been lost, but one in particular was so
painful……. A truly personal blow!!
A PERSONAL BLOW
1st July 2014
Is it true that Dr. Sam Mutooro has succumbed
to Ebola?
By the time I read this
update on the Mbarara University Facebook group MUST-Medics, there were already over 100 comments that confirmed
this sad reality; Dr. Sam Muhumuza Mutooro the burly surgeon with a ready
smile, the silliest OT-jokes and that “don’t give up” attitude was no more. He
had died fighting Ebola in Liberia. Most of us didn’t even know he was in
Liberia!!
When I looked at the time
on the last post, and with what I knew about Ebola, I knew Mutooro, as he was
fondly called, would already have been buried. I imagined the burial team: solemn,
perhaps scared, dressed in protective gear performing a hurried burial. He
would not have thousands of family and friends at his funeral, no casket
carried by his family and friends, no night vigil at his home, no prayers at
the grave side, no proper goodbye: this is how we would have to say goodbye to
our teacher and friend-on a Facebook page. It was then that many of us started
paying closer attention to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa; it had struck a
very personal blow.
Nearly 3 weeks later we
read what the Liberian president said about Mutooro. ….To the late Dr. Sam Mutooru
Muhumuza, another victim of the Ebola virus, the Citation by the President
read: “…The finest moment of the professional life of the deceased would be
recorded when he undertook the assignment to Liberia, as a manifestation for
the promotion of international cooperation, to provide humanitarian service to
the people of Liberia. It is in recognition of his collaborative and selfless
service to the Liberian people that the Government deeply shares a sense of
sorrow with the Government and people of Uganda and his family to whom the
Liberian Nation is morally indebted. He would be remembered as a true
international servant who exhibited competence and intelligence at the highest
echelon of his profession and distinction.” The late Ugandan Medical Doctor assigned at the Redemption
Hospital, Dr. Sam Mutooro Muhumuza, was posthumously admitted into the Humane
Order of African Redemption with the Grade of Knight Grand Commander.
So many accolades and complex words for a
simple kind humble soul. When there were no clean “senior’s scrubs”, he wore the old faded
ones from the students’ pile. When the theatre list was long, he started early,
worked faster and ended late. He joked with the students, was friendly but
respectful with all the nurses, and carried a laptop with “groovy” music. His
car was always parked near the Emergency ward, you would think it had broken
down there.
So, as we watched the world talk about him, papers
print him name, and the internet capture story after story, I remembered a
simple man with a hearty laugh who would have smiled at all this, shrugged his burly
shoulders, said something funny and scrubbed for the next case.
Rest in Peace our friend and teacher, you fought a good fight.
To his wife and children, May God comfort you and give you Peace.
By Annet Alenyo Ngabirano
