Old Kampala hospital has issued a 7-day ultimatum for Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and their former patient Muhamood Kabanda to apologise for accusing the hospital of illegal organ harvesting.
Last month, the two ran to social media accusing the hospital of harvesting Kabanda’s kidney when he was admitted following a nasty accident.
It came after Kabanda, a trader in Owino market petitioned the Lord Mayor saying that his kidney had been illegally removed when he sought treatment from Old Kampala Hospital following a motor accident that left a cut on his forehead. Kabanda opened a case at Old Kampala Police Station alleging that his left kidney was removed when he went for treatment at Old Kampala Hospital.
A lawyer from Lukwago’s firm followed up on the case. However, separate investigations by the police and the Uganda Medical & Dental Practitioners Council found that Kabanda was born with one Kidney and that there was no kidney harvesting as alleged. The council noted that surgeons made an incision on Kabanda’s stomach to remove a tissue that was used to repair his broken skull.
Addressing journalists on Monday morning, Dr. Faisal Kazibwe, the Medical Director of Old Kampala Hospital said that the statements made by Lukwago and Kabanda were defamatory. He said that they want the two to run an apology on the front pages of New Vision, Daily Monitor, and other media houses they spoke to while accusing the hospital of kidney harvest.
“We want the Lord Mayor to apologise to the hospital, Muslim community and the public for spreading misleading information alleging that Old Kampala hospital harvested the client’s kidney without his knowledge, which is not true,” Dr Faisal Kazibwe, a senior official at the hospital, told journalists.
Kazibwe emphasised that the hospital is a religious based hospital and can not do anything out of the agreed.
“This hospital is a religious-founded facility and we cannot do anything out of what is being agreed upon in the consent form signed by the client or the relatives prior to the operation. If Mr Lukwago doesn’t apologise within the seven days, we shall then resort to legal processes to ensure that he compensates the hospital for all the damages,”
Kazibwe has given the duo a seven days ultimatum starting November 21st 2022, to run the apology and retract their allegations or face court.
Asked to confirm if indeed Kabanda and the family consented to an operation, Dr. Kazibwe said that the family had indeed consented to the operation with information regarding the procedure.
He emphasized that the patient, like others who come to the hospital, was attended to by qualified personnel. He said the neurologist who operated on Kabanda was a qualified practitioner who followed the necessary procedure to attend to the patient.
When contacted, Kabanda said that he was yet to recover and doesn’t see why he should apologize to the hospital. Kabanda, who disputed both the Police and the report from the Uganda Medical & Dental Practitioners Council insists that he needs an independent investigation conducted outside Uganda to ascertain his status.
