Susan K. Muyiyi
11 October 2007
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September 25, 2007 will remain a memorable day for Dennis and Esther Kimbugwe. It happened to be their daughter's first birthday and the day she returned from Le Bonheur Children's Centre in Memphis, USA after undergoing life-saving open-heart surgery. Doctors in Uganda had predicted that without the surgery, her heart would fail before her second birthday. Their daughter Dorcus Kisakye was born with two holes on her heart, but her survival is a miracle to the couple.
Miracle child: Dennis and Esther Kimbugwe with daughter Dorcus at their home in Mukono last week. They attribute their daughters survival to God's grace. The couple is grateful to all those who responded to their cry for help. Photo by Ismail Kezaala
They didn't have the Shs60m needed for the surgery. And yet the operation was urgent. Even worse was that it couldn't be performed at Mulago, the only referral hThe echo test on Dorcus Kisakye's heart revealed two holes. Her parents didn't have the Shs60m needed for the surgery, but within a few weeksospital in Uganda. However, the relentless search for help from people the couple didn't even know, led them to the Le Bonheur Children's Centre in USA. According to doctors, if the operation wasn't done at that time (when she was operated), Kisakye's chances of survival were very minimal.
At birth, Kisakye seemed a normal child except for her weight. She weighed 1.8 kg, 3.5 kg at six weeks and 5kg for the next four months. At three months, her parents noticed that she sweated a lot and had difficulty in breathing.
"A number of people explained her sweating as a condition commonly experienced by children her age," Esther says. Kisakye breast-fed normally but she didn't have appetite for other foodstuffs and drinks. At seven months, she couldn't crawl or do things children at her age did. This began her parents' relentless visits to doctors seeking a proper diagnosis of her condition.
"We visited about three doctors who gave us false hope." Their continued visits to various specialists led them to the Mwana Mugimu Clinic in Mulago. To their surprise, they were referred to the Uganda Heart Institute.
A pastor in Memphis with Kisakye a few days after the operation. Courtesy photos
"The wait (7a.m.to 3p.m.) at the doctor's office is one of longest anguishing times we had ever experienced. Just beside us was a mother whose son was worse than Kisakye. We tried to prepare ourselves mentally by going through the worst of scenarios." "The look on my wife's face when she came out of the doctor's office confirmed my worst fear," Dennis reveals.
The echo (a test that spots pulmonary hypertension) that Peter Lwabi, a pediatric cardiologist did on Kisakye's heart revealed two holes: one inside and another outside her heart. The one inside was very big. "These are cases you read about in the newspapers. It is not something anyone expects to happen to their child," Dennis says.
"The doctor told us that our only option was to go to India for surgery at an estimated cost of Shs26m. We couldn't help wondering where we were going to get the money. We stayed awake the entire night," he recalls.
The couple planned to sell the house they had started building and also planned to fundraise through the media. The news of their plight started making rounds among friends and family. The first day of the month of May was dedicated to prayer and fasting. "Together with some friends and the Herald's Choir, we prayed for two things: for God to either seal the holes in our daughter's heart miraculously or to provide the money needed for the operation and soon."
The search for help
Meanwhile, Eron Ssemogerere a close friend fervently searched the Internet for financial help. 'I forwarded our plea for help to a number of organisations including the Rotary Club of Toronto, the Forerunner Health Centre, the International Children's Heart Institute which forwarded our request to Dr Boston Omar of the Le Bonheur Children's Medical Centre," Ssemogerere reveals.
The Hwan Sung group of companies in Uganda which has a fund catering for people with complicated health conditions requiring expensive treatment was also contacted. Help came sooner than expected. Dr Omar informed them of the hospital administration's decision to operate Kisakye free of charge two weeks after they had prayed.
"It is one thing to pray for something and it is another to actually receive it. We didn't know what to say. We were extremely excited," they explain, still overwhelmed by the trend of events.
But there was still a snag; they had to raise money for the air ticket and accommodation expenses for the two weeks they were to spend in the US. Several efforts to raise the money were made. They organised a dinner but only got back what they had invested. Esther's employers, the couple's family and friends, a church in Australia and in Najjankumbi pooled resources to cover the ticket fare.
Dr Jonathan Sebunya from Australia had initiated a church fundraising which yielded money to cover other expenses. And that wasn't the only good news Sebunya had: "He informed us that Christy Smith, Trevor Scofield's fiancé lived near the hospital where the operation would take place and was willing to accommodate my wife and daughter."
"At this point, we were so over whelmed by the responses we had got, the Hwan Sung group of companies had contacted us, and the Rotary Club in Toronto also had an offer. It was too good to be true," they excitedly reveal.
Dorcus was admitted on August 7, 2007. The results of another echo test revealed that her condition was more severe that what they had thought. "Our daughter was born with ventricular septal defect (VSD) and severe pulmonary hypertension (PH)," the Kimbugwes say.
VSD is a defect in the ventricular septum, the wall dividing the right ventricles of the heart whereas PH is a condition where the pressure in the blood vessels inside the lungs and the heart is very high.
After travelling such a long way, Dorcus was weak and had to be fed for four days through a feeding tube. She sat without support after the four days. On August 16, the operation took almost six hours. She spent a week in intensive care attached to many monitors.
"All I can say is that my little girl was wired to many tubes," Esther says. However she can't stop singing praises to the hospital staff. "We were treated so well. The rooms at the hospital are like those in a hotel. Two nurses attended to each child in the intensive care unit. There were times I forgot the reason I was there."
The doctors worried about Kisakye's size and they didn't expect her to pull through quickly. However, she emerged triumphantly and started breathing on her own five days after the operation. But before the discharge note could be signed, a number of tests were run to eliminate any doubts. It is difficult to tell that the little girl swinging from her father's lap to her mother's, at their home in Mukono under went such a major surgery two months ago. You have to look at the scars on her chest and the pictures taken to know for sure.
Although she hasn't put on the desired weight yet, she can crawl and is very energetic, a great improvement compared to how she just sat in one place before the operation. Even though eating is still a challenge, the doctors say that she will live a normal life like any other child her age.
The couple is overjoyed that God didn't let them down in their time of great need. They are very grateful to Dr Omar and his team, Ms Ssemogerere, the Heralds Choir, Dr Sebunya and everyone who stood by them during their ordeal. "It had to be God," they say in unison.
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