A group of 10 medical and technical experts from Kenya arrived in Uganda to carry out complicated surgeries and other delicate operations on patients who sustained severe injuries during the July 11 bombing in Kampala.

Health Minister Dr. Steven Malinga, who received the delegation of doctors at Mulago said Uganda needed their expertise since they had prior experience of treating bomb survivors when they participated in a similar exercise after the 1998 terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Nairobi.

"We found it necessary to bring in extra experts due to the nature of the incident that happened. We realized that the volume of the patients was overwhelming hence a lot of work had to be done. Like it or not we had to bring in other extra experts," Malinga stressed.

The medical experts were officially sent by the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) an organization that is already doing some health interventions in Uganda. Some of the top surgeons in the group were expected to embark on serious operations on the patients for a period three days. They are however expected to work alongside Ugandan doctors and nurses.

Led by AMREF's head of surgical outreach, Dr John Wachira, the group promised to complement Uganda's technical expertise in areas such as surgery and other forms that require intensive care. The team is to provide surgery to 16 patients who got severe injuries as well as those who got fractures on their bones. One patient whose spinal cord was broken is also scheduled to be operated.

Malinga expressed confidence that given its high expertise, the team would go a long way in providing the best treatment patients could get in the region.
"Our medical team did a lot of emergency treatment and this team is here to offer definite treatment to all the injured people," an official from Mulago hospital disclosed.

Compensation

Starting next week, families of the people who perished in the bomb attacks and those who were injured during the bomb blast are to receive compensation through the Ministry of Internal affairs.

Members of Parliament contributed Ushs 33m towards the compensation fund. The office of the Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi also contributed five million shillings while President Museveni contributed Ushs 15m.

The families who lost the bereaved will receive five million shillings each while those who got injured will get three millions.

Emergency response team

Following reports that some of the July 11 bomb survivors were not handled with due care, Minister Malinga has revealed that the government is to set up A special disaster team response team, that will be equipped with skills on how to handle cases such as those with broken bones.

"There are some people who are willing to help those involved in serious accidents but in the process of helping the victims, they end up causing more pain and damage to the injured more especially those with broken bones," Malinga said.

He said that police should also be trained on how to handle injured victims since majority of them do not know how to handle them. Malinga said the disaster response team which is expected to comprise medics and police officers, will be taught how to handle victims involved in serious accidents like bomb blasts, brutal accidents among others. blog comments powered by Disqus

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