A 70-year-old woman who has been stuck at Luwero hospital since December last year has finally been reunited with her family following a media appeal.
Margaret Nanyonjo was admitted to Luwero hospital on December 30 after she was involved in an accident. She was later discharged but failed to leave the hospital after failing to get in touch with her relatives.
The hospital administrators also failed to trace her relatives because Nanyonjo had no identification by the time she was admitted. She also revealed several places of residence due to a mental breakdown. This forced Ronald Ssonko the medical social officer at Luwero hospital to launch a media appeal last Thursday asking relatives to pick Nanyonjo because they were no longer able to look after her.
Nanyono’s grandson Henry Mutyaba, also a resident of Mukono municipality said that their grandmother Nanyonjo disappeared from home after experiencing mental illness. Since then he said, they have been looking for her until they received information last week that she was stuck at Luwero hospital.
Mutyaba applauded Luwero hospital for offering necessary medical attention to Nanyonjo, saying they were not aware that she was admitted to the facility. Nanyonjo couldn’t explain how she left Mukono municipality and ended up in Luwero but was excited upon seeing her grandsons.
Dr Bruno Oyik, medical superintendent of Luwero hospital says that after media reports, they got several calls from the relatives asking to pick Nanyonjo. He says that the relatives were interviewed before the hospital agreed to release Nanyonjo to return home on Friday.
Oyik also applauded the media for the role played in enabling the hospital and Nanyonjo to reach out to the relatives. He however decried increasing cases of patients abandoned at the facility. According to the hospital, on average, 20 patients are abandoned at the hospital per month.
Most of the abandoned patients are accident victims transferred to the hospital by the police and those referred there from the community health centres.
