Mother spends three years in ICU over chronic kidney failure

Mbarara, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Catherine Atukwatse, 34, a mother of three and resident of Kemikyera cell, Sheema municipality has spent three years in the Intensive Care Unit at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital due to chronic kidney failure.

Admitted to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit in 2019, Atukwatse was diagnosed with double kidney malfunctioning after failing to excrete liquid waste from her body for almost a month.

While narrating the pain she is going through, Atukwatse said she is experiencing abnormal heart pumping and cannot easily eat or drink because of general body weakness.

Fred Atwine, a husband to Atukwatse explains that after the diagnosis, doctors placed a catheter on his wife to help draw liquid waste from the body. She goes through dialysis, a blood purifying treatment that is given when kidney function is not optimum, twice a week.

Atwine says the treatment is very challenging and costly noting that they need over 400,000 Shillings a week for the dialysis. She says that doctors have advised a quick kidney transplant to save her life, which requires between Shillings 150-200 million.

Dr. Rose Muhindo, a nephrologist at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital says that Atukwatse was taken through several body examinations and was diagnosed with high blood pressure that caused kidney malfunctioning.

Dr. Muhindo says that the disease is currently at stage five, which calls for kidney replacement therapy, a process that puts the patient on dialysis until they find a kidney donor and money.

Kidney failure is commonly caused by diabetes, high blood pressure, autoimmune kidney diseases, certain medications, severe dehydration, and urinary tract obstruction.

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