Cow-attack victim finally out of hospital

Relief Egide Ntihabose ends four years in a wardNYANZA – Doctors have discharged 20- year old Egide Ntihabose from Nyanza Hospital and sent him home from where he will continue to receive medical care.Ntihabose was attacked by a neighbour’s cow four years ago. The deadly attack left him paralysed after the cow injured his spinal cord.At the time, he was a senior three (S.3) student at EAV Mayaga. The New Times broke the story about onNtihabose’s bad state last month. At the time, the victim claimed that his rendezvous with a neurosurgeon at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) were not honoured, though the management of the hospital refuted the claims.Twenty-four hours after the story was brokenpublished, Ntihabose was rushed to CHUK where he was jointly diagnosed by Dr Sévérien Muneza, a neurosurgeon, and the Director General of CHUK, Dr Theobald Hategekimana, a neurologist.However, now, after analysing his situation, the doctors have decided to send Ntihabose back home where he will be closely monitored by a team of doctors from Nyanza District Hospital.“Now he is at home with his family. But we will continue to monitor his situation,” Dr Hategekimana said in an interview on this week. “We talked with him (Ntihabose) and his mother and they are aware of what is going on”.Ntihabose hails from Cyeru Cell, Kibilizi Sector of Nyanza District. Dr Hategekimana, however, declined to reveal the actual health situation of the young man, noting that he could not disclose his patients’ health affairs to the press.“We have done everything we could and shared with him (Ntihabose) what we realised before taking the decision (of discharging him). There are illnesses which take long to cure or which a patient has to live with forever,” he said.In our last story, Dr Hategekimana observed that Ntihabose “has a problem with his spine and correcting such a problem after four years is not simple”.This time round, the doctor said Ntihabose will be assisted by both the district and the local hospital. “He will undergo a monthly check-up at Nyanza hospital and anytime the team of doctors monitoring him will require our assistance, we will be ready to offer help,” Hategekimana observed. “The bill will be paid by the district”Speaking to this paper, Dr. Marcel K. Polepole, the Director of Nyanza hospital, said that they will assist the 20- year old to get new catheters and tubes which he uses to ease himself.“The doctors from CHUK drew a list of recommendations which we will have to follow,” Dr Polepole said.“Keeping him in the hospital may lead him to contract other diseases. So it was decided that his health situation be monitored from his home. We will comply with the recommendations we got,” the doctor said.The Mayor of Nyanza District, Abdallah Murenzi, told this newspaper: “We have agreed to pay for everything which will be spent on him. The district cannot fail to support people who need special attention”.Efforts to talk to Ntihabose’s mother were fruitless by press time. In a previous interview with The New Times, Ntihabose had openly shared his agony and spoke of how he missed school.

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Cow-attack victim finally out of hospital