Police in Kicukiro district is holding a medical doctor and a nurse for unethical behaviour.
Police Sources have reported that Dr. Bonaventure Hishamunda, a medical doctor in Byumba is charged with leaving surgical material in the womb of Zawadi Murekatete, a Congolese refugee from Gihembe refugee camp in 2008.
The story first broke in media after doctors at Kigali Central Hospital removed surgical materials from Murekatete following a medical transfer from Byumba hospital.
According to police investigations, Dr. Hishamunda left three pairs of surgical gloves, a syringe and cotton in Murekatete’s womb after operating on her while giving birth.
Since then Murekatete, a 17 year old then, started developing stomach complications. For three years Dr. Hishamunda operated on Murekatete on three separate occasion but each time failed to diagnose the cause of the stomach pains. During one of Hishamunda operations Murekatete spent two months in a coma.
However Dr. Hishamunda refutes the allegation saying that it was practically impossible for a doctor to leave a lot of material in a patient’s body.
“I regard the accusations as a smear campaign aimed at tarnishing my reputation. To say that I left all that material that was displayed on TV in her body is impossible because she could not have survived,” Dr. Hishamunda said.
Despite Hishamunda claims, Police investigations further unearthed a string of his past operations where he had also left surgical materials in their bodies.
Investigations indicate that Dr. Hishamunda had operated on five women from 2004 to 2007 all of whom developed stomach complications where one of them died and the rest disabled.
As for Perpetue Mbabazi, the head nurse at the Kigali Central Hospital, she is charged with destroying evidence after she ordered the surgical items retrieved from Murekatete womb to be destroyed.
She claimed to have done nothing out of the line because all surgical materials are disposed off after the surgery.
Asked whether it didn’t seem odd to her that surgical materials were being removed from a human body, she conceded that she might have committed a mistake by not realizing that it could later become a problem.
Police spokesperson superintendent Theos Badege pointed out that the two were charged with attempted bodily harm.
“The issue here is that why were the surgical material from Murekatete’s womb quickly disposed while the incident should have created curiosity? That is why the case took long and become complicated,” Superintendent Badege noted.
Badege wondered why as professionals they didn’t realize that the material was evidence that could have aided investigations.
He noted that the revelations will make people become more careful especially the medical fraternity.
The case is set to be transferred to Prosecution.
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