Controversial patient now vanishes from Muhimbili National Hospital
THE story of Chacha Makenge continues to take on new twists and turns, the latest development being his vanishing from the psychiatric unit of Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in Dar es Salaam where the controversial patient was supposed to undergo examination on his mental state.
Impeccable sources at the hospital
confirmed the ‘disappearance’ and confided to the ‘Sunday News’ that
there are reports that he had been spotted in the vicinity of the
University of Dar es Salaam, where he once resided in a trench.
This newspaper has also learnt that
after he was transferred to the MNH’s psychiatric unit following a court
order, the said patient decided to take up the matter with the Ministry
of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children.
“However, because of the comprehensive
series of stories that the ‘Sunday News’ has been running for a couple
of weeks now, most ministry officials were aware of the patient’s
medical complications and his reluctance to undergo treatment.
They simply turned him away,” said MOI
Public Relations Officer, Mr Patrick Mvungi. Upon his transfer to the
psychiatric unit from MOI, where he had been admitted and then
discharged, a team of psychiatric specialists had extended an offer to
the patient to go for rehabilitation at the Vikuruti Rehabilitation
Centre on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam after claiming that he was in
need of accommodation.
However, another source told this
newspaper that the patient had contacted the Social Welfare Office at
the hospital by phone recently, complaining that he cannot go to the
centre, which is an extension of the psychiatric unit of MNH, where
occupational therapy is provided to patients who are recovering from
mental illness.
But according to the sources, he cannot
move to Vikuruti because he has a wife and a child. Efforts to reach the
said patient have always proved futile. Makenge is further claimed to
have said that unless the centre can accommodate his family, he cannot
reverse his decision.
“Despite the patient being given an
alternative as a social protection measure, he has declined to take the
offer,” said a social welfare officer based at MOI. Recently the Ilala
District Court in Dar es Salaam issued an order for his transfer and
subsequent admission to the hospital’s psychiatry unit for evaluation of
his mental state.
The order also paved the way for the MNH
auxiliary police to facilitate Chacha’s transfer to the psychiatric
unit. Mr Mvungi, however, said that despite the patient’s transfer to
the psychiatric ward, he returned on the same day to Ward 18, where he
was earlier admitted. “The staff at the ward called the police and he
was arrested and returned to the psychiatric unit immediately,” he said.
According to the Social Welfare Office
at the MOI, the institute’s authorities had asked the court to intervene
and issue the order after realising that the patient was behaving in an
abnormal manner and refused to be discharged even after the doctors had
established that he had fully recovered.
He also had a mental record and was
treated in the psychiatric unit for many years, also posing a threat to
both medical staff and patients. Impeccable sources at the psychiatric
unit told this newspaper that if the patient continues to behave in the
same manner, the second step will be to ask for an extension of the
court order after 15 days so that he can be taken to Isanga Mental
Hospital in Dodoma.
A nurse, who asked for anonymity, said
that patients who do not comply with the ward rules and regulations are
later transferred to Isanga, where such patients can be put under
control.
Mr Mvungi had recently said that the
patient, who had refused to be discharged, posed a risk to the medical
staff and patients in the ward. Some nurses who had spoken to this
newspaper expressed concern regarding the patient, saying it was high
time that he was transferred to the psychiatric ward. The filing of the
court order was precipitated by the patient’s defiance to leave the
ward.
Despite doctors’ recommendation for the
patient’s discharge being satisfied that he had fully recovered, Chacha,
who was for several months admitted to Ward 18 at MOI, was still
reluctant to leave his hospital bed. Medics and social welfare workers
at MOI and MNH had recently resolved to invite the court to handle the
matter including initiating his removal from hospital.
He also said that there were challenges
in this case because in psychiatric treatment, a patient cannot be
forced to undergo a procedure without his own will.
“We normally tell the court that we have
proved that the person in question was of mental infirmity and his
rejection to be treated not only endangers his life, but others as
well,” said Dr Masao.
He further said, however, that the
government has the responsibility to take care of the health of every
citizen. Mr Mvungi said the patient who had refused to be discharged was
a potential risk.
Dr Masao had again extended an offer to
the patient to go and reside at the Vikuruti Rehabilitation Centre which
is an extension of Psychiatric Unit of MNH, where occupational therapy
is provided to patients who are recovering from mental illness.
Recently, the patient demanded that
thisidentity if he wanted to interview him. “Please produce your
identity card to prove that you are indeed a journalist,” demanded
Makenge while seated on his hospital bed reading a newspaper.
He, however, decided to remain quiet,
claiming that he was still sick. He had earlier refused to speak on his
condition following medical reports that he had damaged his spinal cord
and was bedridden. “Are you a doctor to tell me I have recovered?” he
remarked after also demanding from the reporter what the purpose of his
visit was.
But this reporter was able to establish
that Makenge was recuperating and capable of moving around without any
support. However, according to eyewitnesses who preferred anonymity, the
patient had continued to harass and intimidate some medical staff.
“He is using abusive language and even
threatening female nurses,” said one of the affected staffer. “He is
telling them that they are not doing their job well every time he is
talking to the ward attendants,” said the source. The source told this
reporter that the patient would always tell medical staff to go away
whenever they approached him.
It was further established that there
had been an occasion when the patient had refused to be attended by the
medical staff -- that is whenever he felt that they were trying to
convince him to leave the hospital.
“He would turn to the other side of the
bed facing the wall while the doctor or attendants were trying to talk
to him, offering no response,” the sources further reported. Hospital
sources disclosed that Mr Makenge is an artist and a school teacher by
profession.
Mr Mvungi pointed out earlier that the
patient had been examined and found with traces of back injury that had
now healed. “When the patient was subjected to undergo surgery to
establish whether he could not move as he had claimed upon admission, he
declined, feigning paralysis instead. Eventually, to avoid being
operated, he disappeared from the ward for some time, according to the
PRO.
“We have already informed the police on
the patient’s reluctance to leave the ward and they have promised to
take action,” he said. “We don’t know where he goes, which is in total
contravention of both the ward and hospital’s regulations.
It is risky to keep such a patient in
the ward,” he said. According to him, after realising that Chacha was
not able to pay for his fare back home in Mugumu, Serengeti District, in
Mara Region, the hospital’s administration decided to meet his fare,
but he disappeared without notifying anybody at the facility.
Chacha stole national limelight when
President John Magufuli recently visited the MNH. He had briefed the
president on the failure of MRI and CT-Scan machines at the MNH.
But a social welfare expert who has been
following closely the behaviour of the said patient alleged that Chacha
had started facing a rough life several years ago after he had a
dispute with a landlord over rent.
He was then arrested by officers from
the Sitakishari Police Station. He later moved near the University of
Dar es Salaam where he decided to trespass and lived in a cave.
When authorities at the UDSM discovered
that there was a man with no fixed abode living within their property,
the police were deployed to arrest him after which he was taken to the
psychiatric unit of the MNH.
