Health
Retired bishop cheats death after self-medication
Rtd. Bishop Bamwoze
The retired bishop was rushed to Jinja regional referral hospital suffering from stomach constipation after he allegedly self administered drugs to stop diarrhoea.
According to Naome Bamwoze, a cardiologist a Nakasero hospital, requested to have the retired bishop transferred because he needed to monitor him more closely.
Dr Batambuze who had rushed to Jinja on Monday evening to check on the retired cleric after being admitted in Jinja regional referral hospital since the night of Good Friday wondered how such an important citizen would lie in a hospital bed without being assigned a particular medic to attend to him.
“Why do you allow even these students on internship to tamper with the Bishop, I would leave him here if there was a special doctor attending to him whom I could keep liaising with but not these students here” the cardiologist wondered.
Dr Batambuze accordingly arranged for the transfer of Dr Bamwoze from Jinja to Nakasero hospital on Tuesday.
Illness
According to the bishop’s relatives, the cleric was rushed to hospital on Good Friday, after complaining of stomach complications.
Keziah Bamwoze, the Bishop’s daughter said: “It all started with serious diarrhoea for about three days and when it was persisting, dad asked me to buy some strong tablets that would help stop it, unfortunately when it stopped, he developed constipation, a swollen belly, forcing us to bring him to hospital.”
Being an Easter holiday, there were no senior nursing officer assigned to the sick cleric, but Sister Sarah Tereka, a senior nursing officer who was regularly checking on him confirmed the constipation and that it was under control.”
Keziah added: “He [dad] does not feel much pain now and the stomach has returned to its normal size” she said.
Dr Bamwoze was the first Bishop of Busoga Diocese after being consecrated in 1982. He however, retired after a turbulent regime that saw Christians and a section of his clergy violently rebell against him against accusations of mismanagement and arrogance in 1998.
A steering committee was selected to transcend the Diocese from him to the next Bishop until the current retiring Bishop Dr Michael Kyomya was elected and consequently consecrated to replace him.
He last year celebrated his 80th anniversary at his country home in Nakakabala in Kamuli district but due to his ill-health, the family transferred him to the town home in Bugembe for easy access to health services. He has always resisted being treated in Private facilities saying the government should put universal requirements for all Ugandans in all health facilities.
Who is Dr Batambuze?
Dr. Ephraim Batambuze, a born of Budondo in Jinja District is a practicing cardiologist formally working with Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants, the largest heart care program in Illinois.
He studied medicine at Makerere University heading to the United States in the early 1970s to complete a residency in internal medicine in Chicago.
The rising political violence in Uganda under the Idi Amin regime prevented him from returning home, and he was granted political asylum there by serving his medical career in United States and becoming the first-born Board member of the African Development Foundation.
Dr Batambuze, a fellow of both the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians later returned to Uganda at 70 years in 2011 and is senior specialist in Nakesero hospital.
He is the current heady of laity in Jinja archdeaconry in the church of Uganda setting.
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