OTJIWARONGO: The Otjozondjupa Regional Health Director says the Ministry of Health and Social Services will stand for all medical expenses related to the treatment of a three-year-old boy suffering from an imperforate anus here.
Peter Angala told Nampa on Tuesday that no private financial assistance is needed for Kemba Herman Nyango’s medical treatment.
Nampa reported last week that Nyango’s mother, the 21-year-old Haita Kapango said she wants to seek private medical treatment for her son as she has been ‘in and out of the Katutura State Hospital in the capital’ for treatment, seemingly with little progress.
“Since he was born, he has been a State patient, and we have enough money put aside to assist him to undergo any medical treatment in and outside the country,” Angala proferred.
The condition involves a defect that is present from birth (congenital), in which the opening to the anus is missing or blocked.
Kapango fell pregnant in 2008 while in Grade Seven at the Ncaute Junior Primary School in the Kavango Region.
Two days after her son’s birth in February 2009, he was diagnosed with excretion defects.
He was then operated on to enable him to discharge human waste through an exposed bowel through his stomach.
He can luckily urinate on his own.
Since then, Kapango and her son have been in and out of the Katutura State Hospital, where her son was referred to for higher-level medical treatment.
In February this year, she was told by doctors at the hospital to wait until her child grows older before an operation is carried out.
The frustrated Kapango however wanted to seek other avenues as she had grown impatient at the news that her son would have to struggle with his condition for what might be a few more years.
She told Nampa last week that she is “fed up” with going to the hospital only to end up being treated “by mere student doctors or nurses”.
Kapango complained of changing bags filled with faeces on average three times a day.
“I change his plastic bag three times a day, and if he has diarrhoea, it is worse for me because that forces me to give him extreme care day-in, day-out to prevent him from sleeping in the faeces,” she said.
Angala, however, now reacted on Kapango’s claims and called for calm as his ministry was in charge and committed to Nyango’s medical treatment.
“We are closely assessing and monitoring the whole situation. As soon as we see that the child is ready for an operation, we will do what we can. No private assistance or whatsoever is needed, he is in good hands,” stressed the Otjozondjupa Regional Health Director.
Last week, the acting Principal Medical Officer of the Otjiwarongo State Hospital, Dr Emmanuel Makopa said the cause of excretion defects are not always known to doctors as the real cause of congenital malformation in a child with an imperforate anus could be a result of biological multi-malformations.
Makopa explained that the child’s natural excretion process can be restored with proper paediatric surgery done by experienced surgeons.
He described the previous medical operation on Nyango as temporary, and said surgeons were still working on his case.
He suggested that a final medical operation be conducted at a time when Nyango establishes strong muscles in his bowels.
Meanwhile, Nyango failed to turn up for a 24 July appointment at the Katutura State Hospital, which would have preceded a medical assessment on 01 August this year.
She lives with her sister, Josephina Kanyetu, in the DRC informal settlement in Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa Region.