Rubaga Hospital has refused to take responsibility for the death of Judith Nansubuga, a woman who died in labor at the hospital recently.
Nansubuga was admitted at Rubaga Hospital February 18th and died on March 05, shortly after she was induced into labor to remove a lifeless fetus that had spent four days in her womb.
The 35 -year -old nursery school teacher died after Doctors at Rubaga hospital failed to control her blood pressure.
A death certificate signed by Doctor Joseph Abel, states that Nansubuga died of severe Pre-Eclampsia Toxaemia (PET) and primary postpartum hemorrhage (PPH).
PET is a condition in which high blood pressure and fluid retention prevents normal growth of the unborn baby forcing abortion or premature birth, while PPH is a an emergency condition characterised by excessive bleeding after normal or caesarean delivery.
On Friday morning, the management of Rubaga Hospital convened a closed door meeting with the family of the deceased that lasted for four hours to reach an understanding.
The hospital team was led by Dr. Adolf Deffenhart, the Medical Director; Dr. Peter Kibuuka acting Deputy Medical Director, Dr. Jumba Mukasa and public relations officer Grace Agaba . While the family of the late Nansubuga was led by her husband Michael Kayongo and Sister Phelister Nakamya. Dr. Adolf Deffenhart admitted that some mistakes were committed in the management of the deceased but denied that the hospital was responsible for her death.
Despite the fact that Dr Deffenhart and Dr Kibuuka were touched by the death of Nansubuga, Dr Jumba Mukasa, who was supposed to be on call on March 05 when Nansubuga died seemed unbothered.
Dr Jumba insisted that the hospital did its best to save the life of Nansubuga. This didn’t go down well with the family of Nansubuga who demanded that the hospital takes action on the medical officers who were on duty when she passed away. They also rejected a proposal by Dr. Deffenhart that a new maternity ward in the hospital be named after the deceased.
Nakamya and Kayongo questioned why Dr. Jumba, the in-charge of the unit who was on call, neither picked nor returned a call when he was reached on phone. Dr Jumba denied that he was on duty saying that the family was misinformed. The hospital management also pleaded with the family of the deceased not to speak to the media about the matter in vain. There was a heated argument when Nansubuga’s family asked to access a copy of the medical file of the deceased but Dr Jumba shot up in protest saying the hospital would not be safe, but he was overruled by his boss.
On perusing the file the family realized that there were attempts to falsify records.
Though the baby was born at 5pm on March 5, the medical report shows it was born at 7:30pm long after it had been buried.
Dr. Deffernhart told Kayongo that they were free to seek medical redress from any qualified physician but informed them that internal investigations were on to establish what exactly happened to avoid a similar incident in the future. Both parties have agreed to continue discusing until the matter is concluded.
