Joshua Nahamya
Mbarara city
Mbarara regional referral hospital medics have warmly received an addendum of children’s pediatric facility from Bethany Kids Uganda.
According to Ivan Nuwagaba, the country director of Bethany Kids in Uganda, the constructed pediatric facility worth Shs 60 million is a commemoration of Martin S. Situma, founder of the Mbarara pediatric surgical unit at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital [MRRH] who passed on July 21, 2022.
“We stand to remember the great work and the impact done by Dr Martin Situma who started this in 2014. We want to commemorate the great work and the impact the Bethany kids has had since 2014,” Nuwagaba noted
He said that “their core area is paediatric surgery, rehabilitation and spiritual support” adding that, “this is one of the milestones recorded under rehab and surgery”. “We shall continue with the work that he did and the impact that is it is having in the community”
Nuwagaba said that the children’s pediatric surgery unit has been congested thus causing an extension of the pediatric surgical unit to accommodate a good number of malformed children.
Congratulations to Bethany kids Uganda.
“Over time, our care has been growing and the numbers have been increasing but we didn’t have enough space. So Bethany kids came in to provide an extension to have enough space to accommodate a good number of children,” he emphasized
Despite the space constraints, Mbarara main hospital receives about 20 surgeries, says Nuwagaba. “This is one of the great achievements to compliment the child care because we have now got an office and an extension where many of the admitted children will have space.” He said
Dr Felix Oyania, Paediatric Surgeon at Mbarara University and MRRH, thanked Bethany Kids for their support, which will extend quality health care at the main hospital in Mbarara City.
He said that they had a 14-bed capacity operating only 70-100 cases of malformations per month. “Thank you so much Bethany Kids Uganda, we convey our sincere appreciation to Mbarara University because we are beneficiaries of the cordial relationship now that we are enjoying this new facility. We hope that through this extension, we are going to increase to about 150 surgeries per month,” Oyania noted
“This extension is going to improve the quality care for our patients in south western region and beyond of course free of charge,” he added.
Malformation is a condition where babies are born with congenital anomalies [things that go wrong] when they are still in their mothers’ wombs.
Among these include: anorectic malformation, gastroschisis, oesophageal atresia, and omphalocele among others.
“There are so many malformations of course there are those which are acquired as they grow.” Oyania said
Deus Twesigye, Acting Hospital Director(1)
Causes of malformations
According to Dr Oyania, there is no specific cause of malformations among children. “Others may be environmental, some are genetic, some come as a result of the foods that we eat, the chemicals that are around, alcohol, toxins like smoking among others. So the anomalies are many but we take care of them here at the unit.” He noted
Dr. Jonan Tusiimire, Deputy Dean Faculty of Medicine at MUST, rallied the people out there to always bring their children with malformations to Mbarara main hospital for specialized care free of charge.
“I would like to communicate to the entire public that we are offering services for children who have different malformations that need surgery. So please bring those children here because the services are available. We hope that collectively, we are going to improve the health of children in our communities.” Tusiimire explained
Dr Deus Twesigye – Acting Executive Director, of Mbarara Referral Hospital, embraced a tripartite partnership between MUST, MRRH, and Bethany Kids Uganda to see that they swiftly swung into action to put a modern facility for malformation surgeries at Mbarara Hospital.
“Together with the university and the hospital collaboration, I’m very grateful to Bethany kids’ administration for swiftly coming in very first to construct a structure that can improve on the space where medication can be extended to the children” Twesigye stated
“We have a five-year plan for the hospital and this space was meant for a different structure but we said that we can’t wait until that time we are not sure of. Let us enjoy what is here today; the future will come with its own story” Adding that, the rest is just background noise.” He added
