The trial of two medics of Baho International Hospital charged with involuntary manslaughter has been pushed to May. The postponement is as a result of the court’s failure to obtain a medical report from the Ministry of Health (MoH), yet it is considered a key evidence in the case. The medics, Dr.Alfred Mugemanshuro, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Gaspard Ntahonkiriye, a gynecologist are being prosecuted in connection to the death of Chantal Ngwinondebe, a female patient who checked into the hospital mid-last year seeking the removal of an Intrauterine device from her body, but ended up losing her life during the operation. The substantive hearing of the case has been postponed thrice, all due to one reason: failure to obtain the report that the MoH compiled in the aftermath of the death of Ngwinondebe. It is this report that informed the total closure of the hospital in September last year. Originally, the trial had to start in December last year, only to be pushed to January this year, then to March, and now to May. Standing before the Kicukiro Primary Court on Friday, March 4 the lawyers representing Paul Jabo - Ngwinondebe’s widower – told the presiding judge that they have tried lots of efforts to get the report from the MoH but to no avail so far. The judge resolved to push the trial to May so that the report can be obtained and produced in court then. Meanwhile, Baho International Hospital is set to resume operations on March 14. Dr Doctor Corneille Ntihabose, the Head of Clinical and Public Health Services Department at the Ministry of Health, said they were convinced by the improvements made by the hospital. “We were convinced on how they fulfilled all the recommendations we had given them before closure, and as a matter of fact they have changed the building among many other improvements,” he said. The hospital will be operating in its new Rwf10 billion building located in Nyarutarama near the Christian Life Assembly church.
