After four years of blindness, nurse seeks reinstatement

In August 2009, while treating an HIV positive patient at Kiziguro Hospital in Gatsibo District, Jovia Murekatete, 29, accidently pricked herself.She says she was told to take prophylaxis drugs, and a month later, she lost her sight.That is when her life took an underserved turn. Her salary and health insurance was also halted three months later, because she could not show up to work.Today, she relies on her 70-year-old mother for everything. Seated at her home in Gakenke cell, Kiramuruzi sector, just 2 kilometers from her former workplace, Murekatete recalled that the accident happened on July 17, 2009 and she was prescribed the combination called AZT+3TC+EFV which she had to take until the 15th day of the following month.After this time, she returned to work, but on August 23, she abruptly lost sight while on her night shift. The following day, she notified her employers of the problem.“There was no official letter over my case, not even a visit by my employers, until December when the accountant came at home and told me that they had stopped my salary, because I had abandoned work,” she said. Murekatete went from health facility to another for different tests, where eye doctors suggested it could be some eye diseases including Glaucoma, a disease in which fluid pressure within the eye rises. All the treatment cost her over Rwf 600,000 raised mainly through loans.“It ruined the earnings I had saved for the last four years in the service of this hospital,” she says.After she ran short of money, a year later, she had no choice rather than stop medical treatment. However, she later on found herself recovering her sight progressively. Now that she is recovering, she is asking to be reinstated, but her employers are still reluctant to welcome her back.“I now want to be reinstated because I am tired of begging. My family still needs me as a bread winner,” she said adding “my future worries me as a grown-up woman who should start own family.”Her concern is that the hospital did not cater for her medication and is not willing to take her back. Who to blame? But her former employers say they are yet to confirm whether the blindness was a side effect of the prophylaxis as Murekatete claims. “It has nothing to do with side effects,” said a senior official at the hospital on condition of anonymity, adding however, that Murekatete was a committed staff.Fred Fundi, now medical director at Rutongo Hospital, is believed to be the person who prescribed the prophylaxis to the nurse. He, however, doubted the possible connection of Murekatete’s blindness and the drugs he prescribed.He said “I am reluctant to believe that blindness can be a side effect of prophylaxis; it would be the very first case.”When contacted by The New Times last week, Diocles Twagiramungu Mukama, the medical director who was appointed at Kiziguro in 2010 said he did not know about the case.“I don’t know about the case, let her come and we will see what the law provides for”. Murekatete’s case came to light thanks to the Rwanda Nurses and Midwives Association (RNMA). Members conducted a field visit to the area two months ago. The association has 5,500 members. According to Andrew Gitembagara, the RNMA president, the common side effects of the prophylaxis include anemia, renal intoxication, lip dystrophy, which is a disturbance in production, usage and storage of the fat in the body.Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, deputy director general in charge of the Institute of HIV/Aids Disease Prevention and Control at the Rwanda Biomedical Center/ (RBC/IHDPC) told this paper that a team of HIV prevention specialists was sent to field to scientifically establish whether the case has any relationship with prophylaxis.He said, “From my scientific knowledge, prophylaxis do not have side effect in the eyes. But our team will also get a point of view of ophthalmologists”.The official said the team will release the findings next week. “The employers were irresponsible because they abandoned their staff, instead of guiding her on medical and insurance procedures,” said GitembagaraAccording to Abdon Faustin Nkotanyi, the executive secretary of Senjousmel/Sineduc, a Kigali based labour union, the employee had a right to six months of salary since she was under a permanent contract.About her medication, Nkotanyi said the Rwanda Social Security Board cannot cover her medical expenses, unless she had reported the case within two years.“Murekatete should write to her employer and tell them that she could not make it to work, but now that she is recovering, she can afford. They may ask her fitness check-up to find out whether she has the ability to deliver.”

National

After four years of blindness, nurse seeks reinstatement