One of the babies previously dumped at Mbarara Referral Hospital by an anonymous mother has passed on.
This was confirmed by Mr. Halson Kagure the Mbarara Referral Hospital Public Relations Officer on December 29, 2022.
Kagure informed this website that a four months baby girl was picked by a hospital cleaner while collecting garbage around the hospital premises and was getting medical attention at the Pediatric ward for a couple of days.
“It appears that the baby had spent days in dirty clothes where she was wrapped which risked her health. She was then rushed to the Pediatric ward on oxygen and she passed on as efforts to stabilize her were still underway,” Kagure said.
He asserted that at the time of her passing on, Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital management were still tracing for the mother’s whereabouts
“For now, the body of the infant has been taken to the mortuary where postmortem report will be conducted on the request of Uganda police where the case was first reported,” he said.
Kagure further explained to this website that there’s another baby who was dumped by a mother (identified as Immaculate Ahimbisibwe) – according to the Antenatal card- that the hospital managed to see.
“The missing mother (Immaculate) is said to be a resident of Kyampotani in Kakooba here, Mbarara City and she was attending Antenatal visits from Kakooba Health Center. Her baby girl is still getting medical attention from the Neonate Intensive care unit without relatives or next of kin,” he explained.
Much as Kagure is hopeful that the baby girl will make it, Dr Celestine Barigye the Mbarara Referral Hospital Director has condemned the act of parents abandoning babies they bore for nine months.
According to Dr Barigye, it’s not only evil but also illegal to neglect government children who are entitled to life as pertained in the constitution.
Dr Barigye is calling upon the relatives of the abandoned baby to come and pick her as he tasks local authorities to always monitor mothers who lose their kids under mysterious circumstances.