SA doctors fail to save Kibanda`s eye

BY GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY CORRESPONDENT

10th March 2013

President Jakaya Kikwete visits New Habari Corporation group managing editor Absalom Kibanda at Mill Park Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday.

Surgeons at the Millpark Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa have failed to save the injured eye of New Habari Corporation group managing editor Absalom Kibanda, and have had to take it out.

Tanzania Editors’ Forum secretary general Neville Meena said in a statement yesterday that the TEF chairman’s employer, New Habari Corporation CEO Hussein Bashe, informed him of this development in the top editor’s hospitalization in South Africa.

The surgery on the eye was carried out yesterday and the patient was taken out of theatre thereafter, with the disappointing news that his eye could not be saved owing to intense injury.

The statement said the doctors took the medical decision after noticing that the eye was damaged from the inside and could not see again. He has been placed with a plastic eye which however shall not permit him to see with that eye, it further noted.

“What is to be thankful for the Lord God is that the surgery, which took some five and half hours was done with great success, led by three top specialists, of whom one is an eye surgery expert,” it said.

There was no auxiliary damage in the head during the surgery exercise, it said, noting that the face of the patient has had to be rebuilt on account of scattered injuries inflicted upon attack by so far unidentified people.

The challenge that doctors have been facing in the surgery was to restore in its place some of the body systems surrounding the eye as well as to place the left jaw which was also affected by the savaging he went through. “All the same this was successfully concluded,” the TEF statement indicated.

A more detailed report of the surgery was expected to be issued later today by the medical panel, it said, urging well wishers to continue praying for the injured Kibanda so that his condition improves.

TEF also issued a consolation message on behalf of the board of directors of the Editors Forum, and expressed hope for the quick recovery of the patient.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY