Dear Christine, Thanks very much indeed to you, Mandera, Alfred, Vasco and all those who have continued to support Milburga and family in fighting for justice for Late Mercy Ayiru and indeed for the women of Uganda.
As you have rightly pointed out, such undertakings are quite intimidating, treacherous, mentally and physically draining, let alone the economic cost. The experience must really touch one deeply and/or personally to want to go through such journeys.... (but God forbid anyone ever going through Milburga & family's journey). This is further complicated by some mitigating factors such as our cultures, beliefs, socioeconomic status inter alia. For example, I'm aware of a family that lost a daughter slightly younger than Mercy, similar condition (fibroids), in a public hospital in West Nile (May, 2010 or thereabouts) but, in the hands of a doctor who is related to this family. The dilemma for this family has been that risk of straining family relationships if they pursued the cruel death of their daughter through formal channels (The Medical Council). They seem to be moving towards private settlement or private disciplinary measures (unclear at this stage). Another common short c ut is to presume that such unacceptable deaths are a reflection of "the will of God", in which case, 'nothing can be done but to accept the tragedy'. It is then possible to conjecture from yesterday's New Vision coverage of Mercy's case, why Ssali feels so confident to "offer compensation outside the court". After all, if 'one does not make any noise and quietly accepts compensation' the implications are that 'life can always be destroyed and compensated as and when...as long as business and the bottom line is not affected'. Just a quick point of information, the late Mercy's referral to this dreadful hospital came from a Consultant Gynecologist who ironically is based at Mulago hospital, working in other private hospitals/clinics and precisely wrote the referral note from Mulago hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology Department (4th floor, New Mulago). This was the fourth doctor referring Mercy to a supposedly superior facility. I'm inclined to believe luck plays an important role in some of these experiences. Until when our entire healthcare system is overhauled in Uganda, including crucially, an embedded sense of acting responsibly when discharging duties, the lucky ones will escape and Mercy and others like her will continue to be part of this bleak statistics. Today's Monitor article on 'a district crippled by no electricity' and all those unreported cases of deaths add to the magnitude of the healthcare challenges facing us. It seems to me that the ultimate battle must go beyond the private-public healthcare provision, for, as Ssali is said to have narrated yesterday, and in our own experiences, more less the same practitioners work in public and private hospitals anyway. Thank you once more for all the support, the fight obviously continues. Very kind regards and best wishes for the weekend. Maureen Sent from my iPhone On 8 Dec 2011, at 16:58, Christine Munduru <cmund...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear all, > As I had informed you earlier and as some of you have already read in the new > vision, the discussions in medical council were so successful on our side. > Dr. Ssali who had posed of having connections "above" and tried to disobey > medical council, was intimidatory etc was thoroughly grilled and appeared > helpless infront of medical council together with his lawyer. Much as our > lawyers, fellow westniliers failed to appear for unknown reasons, it did not > stop anything because everything was straight forward. The testimonies from > Milburga and Dr. Onzivua plus the way Dr. ssali was grilled by his fellow > professionals left him with no option but to accept responsibility. what ever > he uttered there is very good for us to move ahead with other options. > > Whatever Dr. ssali said about personnel applies to almost all private > facilities so we need to be careful where we get services from. My > observation has been that much as government hospitals lack facilities and > medicines, they are still better in terms of diagnosis and even treatment if > it is there. Personally I have been misdiagnosed three times in private > facilities and these were all supposed to be opretation cases but I always > check internet and consult other doctors for a second opinion before > accepting to be operated and that is why I survived those fake operations. > Women and children are always the frist victims so we need to be careful and > learn from these experiences > > I think we shall learn alot from this case. Justice needs sacrifice without > which we cannot get it on silver plate. And to cause a change does not need a > mob, only needs few people with committment with clear focus and strategy. > Even lawyers had feared to touch this case but we kept looking for every > small opening to push forward, now with what happened yesterday, we have > already seen some momentum and we hope for the best. This is a step to > rejoice but may be the beggining of another struggle all together so we shall > need your support where possible and it is a long journey. > > A number of reports have pointed that Uganda will not achieve MDG 5 and > westnile has the highest maternal mortality rate in Uganda as reported by the > HSSIP 2010. As westnilers with mothers, sisters and daughters we have alot of > work to do. so such things should open our eyes. > > The courage and determination of Milburga has been very instrumental in this > and we continue to thank her and the family for this courage and give them > moral support. > > Thanks > > Christine > _______________________________________________ > WestNileNet mailing list > WestNileNet@kym.net > http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet > > WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/westnilenet@kym.net/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. > _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ All Archives can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/westnilenet@kym.net/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. _______________________________________________
