By Our Reporter
Hon. Member of Parliament, Betty Nambooze Bakireke’s health condition is at a high risk and worsening everyday – doctors have confirmed.
Nambooze was hospitalized last week on Saturday after her health condition deteriorated at a time she was being held at Naggalama police station. She was first injured during a fracas at parliament on September 27 last year, triggered by controversies on a proposal to remove the cap on the presidential age from the Constitution.
During the time, security personnel believed to be attached to the elite presidential guards, Special Forces Command invaded parliament to evict a group of legislators who had been suspended by the speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga.
According to her medical report, doctors said that she had suffered spinal cord compression and had undergone posterior lumbar decompression and fusion. The surgical procedure joins two or more bones together into one solid bone.
A referral letter signed by Dr Waiswa Gonzaga, an orthopedic surgeon from Mulago National Referral Hospital in Mulago indicates that Nambooze complains of severe low back pain that has progressively increased over the past few weeks. Her operating surgeon Dr Vidyadhara .S. had recommended that she returns to India for review on June 15.
But on the said date, Nambooze was under detention for allegedly inciting violence in relation to the assassination of Arua municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga. She is now admitted at Kiruddu hospital.
According to our reporter, the legislator looks frail and is in a lot of pain. A doctor on duty, who however preferred anonymity, because he is restricted from talking to the media, said that screws that were fixed to support Nambooze’s spine had been displaced.
“The pain is due to the pressure from one of the screws that are displaced from the Lumbar 4 (L4) vertebra. It is pressing on the nerve and it is stimulating the pain in both legs,” the doctor said.
She also broke her silence by assuring the public about her current situation saying its worsening every day and nobody should be surprised at the news of her death.
She noted that she wasn’t able to get treatment funds from Parliament and she is on insurance but this cannot be used if the treatment is supposed to be got from abroad.
” If I am to get assistance from parliament to go outside the country like in this case, my application goes through the medical board for approval for the sake of accountability. The delay was with the board and it is not easy to get it.” – Nambooze replied to why she couldn’t get assistance from Parliament giving an example of Hon. Kabaziguruka who has since failed to get the approval as well.
She however confirmed that after a long wait, the medical board approved the medical visa and she was supposed to travel on Friday, 15th June but was instead arrested on Wednesday.
Nambooze, who was released that same evening of Wednesday 13th June, only to be re – arrested a day later said that she gets low blood pressure which at times goes beyond the extreme and that her doctors fear that she might get a shock.
Nambooze argued that as a member of parliament, she is supposed to have an opinion on issues that concern with the national security maintaining that her arrest is totally political.
