Expectant woman's kidney goes missing after operation in Uganda

The does not allow business involving body organs. PHOTO | COURTESY

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She narrates how she had been rushed to the hospital in critical condition and needed to undergo a surgical operation, only for her kidney to be allegedly harvested.

Kampala. Police in Mubende District are investigating allegations that unscrupulous medics at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital extracted a kidney from an unsuspecting expectant mother.

The victim, Ms Peragiya Muragijemana, 20, is a resident of Lwemiggo Village, Kabyuuma Parish, Kalonga Sub-county in Mubende District. She narrates how she had been rushed to the hospital in critical condition and needed to undergo a surgical operation, only for her kidney to be allegedly harvested.

Ms Muragijemana says she had given birth at the hands of a traditional birth attendant, but failed to deliver the placenta, resulting in over-bleeding. “On April 24, I developed labour pains and I was rushed to a nearby traditional birth attendant, where I delivered a baby girl. Unfortunately, the placenta failed to come out and I was taken to Mubende Regional Referral Hospital, where my husband, [Mr] Amos Tiringanya, was asked to sign a document consenting that I undergo an operation, ”she said in an interview with the Daily Monitor on Monday. In defence of his wife, Mr Tiringanya said medics asked him to consent in writing to his wife’s operation to remove the uterus after doctors informed him it was the only way to save her life since she was haemorrhaging.

“After the operation, my wife was brought back to the ward unconscious and was discharged in three days due to congestion at the hospital. We took her to my mother in-law’s home in Kibyamirizi,” he said.

He added: “But after three days, I received a call from my mother-in-law informing me that my wife had developed stomach complications. We went for an ultra sound scan, which showed that her right kidney was missing. I only signed a document consenting to the removal of my wife’s uterus to save her life, not her kidney.