By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA, April 9 (Reuters) - Scovia Nakawooya's unborn child died inside her as...View MoreBy Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA, April 9 (Reuters) - Scovia Nakawooya's unborn child died inside her as she
struggled to reach a hospital on foot. She died hours later - one of at least seven women in labour to become casualties
of Uganda's coronavirus lockdown, a rights
group said.
Fearful that the viral pandemic could overwhelm already
overburdened hospitals, authorities have banned private transport without special authorisation. But in a poor country with few ambulances, the travel
ban can be deadly for some.
A human rights group in the East African country says seven women in labour and two babies have died because they were forced to walk to hospital to give
birth. The Ministry of Health said it was investigating the reports and could
not comment yet.
The government ban on private transport in place since March 30
includes people suffering medical emergencies. But public health officials say barring
vehicles from the road is making it hard for patients and personnel to reach medical
facilities.
"Very ridiculous," Dr. Muhereza Mukuzi, general secretary of the Uganda Medical Association, said in reference to the ban.
With public ambulances scarce, Ugandans typically reach hospital in private
vehicles, but now need special permits to drive from resident district commissioners.
There is no central number to call and only one
or two officials can authorise a journey in each of Uganda's 134 districts.
Many commissioners have not shared their numbers or do not answer, citizens have complained in local media.
Nakawooya's family had no idea who to call as the 39-year-old mother of four writhed in pain on April 3.
Her husband, Francis Kibenge, begged drivers to take her to a hospital a mile and a half away.
"No one was willing," the brickmaker told Reuters at their
modest house in a suburb west of the capital Kampala.
Fresh concrete was drying on Nakawooya's grave outside. Her infant rested next to her under a
small mound of red soil.
STRUGGLE
Grace Nagawa, the couple's 19-year-old daughter, curled
into a fetal position and wept as she described her mother's 90-minute struggle to
reach help. "Sometimes she would stop, bend and put her hand on her thigh to support her body, just to rest a bit," Nagawa said.
A doctor who examined Nakawooya at the BMC Medical Centre
said she appeared to be suffering a premature separation of
the placenta from the uterus.
"Walking a long distance in that condition was very dangerous," Dr.
Denis Tumwesigye told Reuters.
Nakawooya died at the medical centre the next morning.
Primah Kwagala, head of the Women's Pro Bono legal initiative in Uganda,
cited six other reports of women who died in labour because they could not reach a hospital.
In Wakiso, police drove a woman in labour to hospital
after she bled heavily all night, but she died
anyway, Kwagala said.
In Alebtong district, two babies died in childbirth, although their mothers survived, she said.
In neighbouring Kenya, the family of a motorbike taxi driver say police beat him to death when he violated a coronavirus curfew on March
27 to take a woman in labour to hospital.
Police did not respond to requests for comment this week.
Uganda had recorded 53 cases of coronavirus infections,
and no deaths, as of Thursday afternoon. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema with additional reporting by Joseph
Akwiri in Mombasa Editing by Katharine Houreld, Alexandra Zavis and Mark Heinrich)
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By Elias Biryabarema
KAMPALA, April 9 (Reuters) - Scovia Nakawooya's unborn child died inside her as...View More