Kaeron Natangaaza Kakuru was born at six months, he is progressively hitting the milestones. Left, his family at home. PHOTOS BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
In Summary
Our journey. Reenah Kakuru, a lecturer at Uganda Christian University, Mukono was only six months pregnant when she mistook contractions for abdominal pain. On May 17, 2013 afternoon, after hours of fear, pain, panic and uncertainty, she delivered a boy. Reenah and her husband, Peter Kakuru, the managing director of Power FM, told Esther Oluka how they made it through this ordeal.
May 17, 2013 is a notable date for the Kakurus. The couple welcomed a bundle of joy Kaeron Natangaaza Kakuru. However, his birth which occurred three months early, came with complications. One morning while going about her morning chores, Reenah Kakuru, a lecturer at Uganda Christian University, Mukono, felt intense abdominal pain. She did not realise that the pains could be contractions. At the time, she was with her then two-year-old daughter, Petrina, and Diana, an orphan under the family guardianship. Her husband, Peter Kakuru, managing director Power FM had
already left for work. “At about 11am, the abdominal pain intensified. I called Peter but his calls went unanswered. I called one of his colleagues to deliver a message that I was not feeling well,” Reenah recalls. Given the urgency of the situation, she opted for help from one of her friends who was close by. “Since I could not get through to Peter, my friend was the other person who came to mind. When I told her about the state of my health, she dashed to our home in Kitende,” Reenah explains. Since Reenah had started bleeding. Her friend chose to rush her to a clinic in Seguku, a Kampala suburb on Entebbe road instead of the city centre. At this point, information had reached Peter about his wife’s ordeal. He drove fast to the clinic. “Unbelievably, it took me at most 15 minutes to reach the clinic. Thank God Entebbe Road was free of traffic jam,” says her husband Peter. “At some point as I drove, I thought of calling up an ambulance to pick her up but I brushed off the idea because that would take long to get to her.”
Breaking the news
Soon after linking up with his wife, a doctor came to attend to them and that was when they were told the devastating news. “You’re 26 weeks pregnant and you’re bleeding heavily. So, you have lost the baby. Wait for the nurse to clean you up and you go back home.” Reenah believed the doctor’s report. “The news sank in,” she says adding, “I remember saying, “God, you cannot make me lose my baby and I undergo this pain.””
Seeking a second opinion
As Reenah started to grieve, her husband had something else in mind. Against the wish of the staff at the clinic, he took his wife who was still bleeding to the car. His motive was to get a second opinion at Nakasero Hospital. “She sat in the back seat with her friend as I drove like a crazy person. However, when we reached City Square, the car stalled and we had to take a cab to the hospital. Despite the short distance, the driver charged us Shs25,000 because my wife had stained one of his car seats with blood,” he says looking pensive. As soon as they reached the hospital, the staff rushed Reenah to the emergency room. The medics prioritised saving her life and vowed to do everything in their power to ensure the welfare of the baby if they found him alive. “To our relief, our little one was okay. After normalising my low blood pressure, I went on to deliver the baby, naturally. He was born at around 4.45 pm and made a short cry,” Reenah recalls. The joy was however short-lived moments later when he could not breathe. “As much as I needed attention, the medical team rushed to resuscitate the baby. It seemed like some sort of drama with me in the audience,” she says. Fortunately, after about 40 minutes, baby Natangaaza stabilised. He was then put on a ventilator, feeding tubes, wires and monitors before being taken to the incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). His mother was then attended to and admitted in another room. The Kakurus say their newly born was so tiny and his skin was so translucent that one could see his blood vessels. He weighed about 900g.
What it means to care for a premature baby
A doctor told the couple what it meant to care for a premature baby. One thing was that insurance was not going to cover the medical expenses as it covered only full term babies. The family was told that they were going to incur many expenses as they had to spend a minimum amount of about Shs500,000 daily. Otherwise, the chances of survival of such babies are minimal since their bodies are not well developed. Even when such children beat the odds and live, they end up with complications including stunted growth and disability. “He gave a professional view that we take the baby off a respirator and believe God for another one,” Peter says, adding, “I did not buy the idea, instead I asked him to do everything to save Nantangaaza. I added that God who had given him to us would sustain him.”
Reenah was discharged on Sunday, two days after delivery. She had to commute to attend to the baby. This was as the doctors and nurses kept monitoring his condition. At one time, the Kakurus were told that the baby had a heart murmur ( an unusual sound heard during a heartbeat) and they had to see a cardiologist. Soon after the complication was handled, the baby’s brain started swelling as it retained water (hydrocephalus). A neurosurgeon recommended brain surgery. Things however did get out of hand when Natangaaza suffered apnea (condition in which one stops breathing) and his body suddenly started turning blue. Once again, the medical staff swung into action. “One of the nurses came into the room and pressed hard Nantangaaza’s tiny chest until he regained consciousness,” Reenah explains. “This incident broke my heart. I wondered whether my son would make it.”
As this transpired, members of Watoto Church where the couple prays from, family members and friends prayed and made monetary contributions to cater for the hospital bills. “It was always comforting whenever people
including those we did not know called to either comfort us or inform us that they were sending some money,” says Reenah. Since the medical bills were accumulating, the couple arrived at the decision of selling off one of their cars in order to settle part of the bill. “I thought hard and changed my mind because I believed that God would take charge of the situation,” says Peter. Fortunately, the money from the contributions accumulated over time and the couple settled the expenses. Another good thing happened. “The baby’s head started shrinking to its normal size. The results from a scan later showed that there was no longer water in his brain. Eventually, we were told that he did not need surgery,” Reenah smiles. “I believe my son got healed.” From then, baby Natangaaza’s health started improving and by the time he left hospital two-and half months later, he weighed 1.5 kg. Their medical bill had amounted to Shs32m but the hospital gave the couple a discount off it. Their bill was Shs27m which they cleared using the funds from the well wishers.
Finally home
The Kakuru family was counselled on the things to do while taking care of baby Natangaaza. One of these included ensuring that his room was always warm. “The doctor advised us to let water boil continuously in a kettle and replenishing it every day and night for vapour to maintain the temperature of the room,” Reenah says. “Consequently, most of our sockets blew and we had to do replacements. It was exhausting because it always required someone to constantly monitor the temperature.” The family is thankful that various family members always came to give a hand to Reenah who at the time had put her job on hold unlike her husband.
Weeks turned into months, Natangaaza grew steadily as he incredibly hit all his milestones and his family kept taking him for medical review. “He crawled and muttered words just like other toddlers and this was evidence enough that he was healthy like other children,” Reenah says. “The only issue was that he did not put on weight as fast as we expected but we were told not to worry as he would eventually gain.” Today, the Kakurus say their son is a perfectly healthy boy who is very active and playful. “He is full of life,” says Peter. To justify this, Natangaaza keeps running around the sitting room during the initial stages of the interview. In his tiny voice, he sometimes shouts “daddy” and on other occasions, “mummy”. From my observation, he looks healthy, jolly and a handful. With all that he has been through, one can only say, Natangaaza who is turning three years in May is indeed a walking miracle.
Statistics
Uganda ranks 11th in the number of deaths due to complications from premature birth.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that 38 per cent of the 39,000 deaths that occur in the babies’ first 28 days are due to premature births. Uganda is ranked 13th among the 184 countries with the highest number of premature babies. Born Too Soon, the global action report on premature birth shows that premature birth rates are on the rise in most countries, with the result that premature birth is now the single most important cause of neonatal deaths (babies under 28 days) and the second leading cause of death in children under five years after pneumonia.
The report states that premature births occur for a variety of reasons including early induction of labour, infections, a genetic influence, multiple pregnancies, chronic conditions such as diabetes while others occur spontaneously. Investment in women’s and maternal health and care at birth can reduce stillbirth rates and improve outcomes for women and new born babies, especially those who are premature.
QUICK FACTS ABOUT PREMATURES
Premature babies are evaluated • according to an “adjusted age,” which is their chronological age minus the difference between her birth date and her due date.
• Temperature regulation is one of the biggest challenges for premature babies. Incubators are standard treatments used to warm the baby, who
has little fat for insulation. Struggling to maintain a higher body temperature on their own may deplete their nutritional and energy resources, so the incubator lamps help keep them toasty.
• Breast milk is the ideal nourishment for prematures, as it is common for them to suffer gastrointestinal problems. If breast milk is not viable, formula can be administered. If the baby is too small or weak to take food from a bottle, a feeding tube may be used.
• Some babies present breathing problems especially when they are born before the 35th week. Such babies may spend time on a respirator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU ). Ability to breathe, to digest food, and weight will be the way to measure progress.
Lessons the
Kakurus learned Peter: “God is faithful and we ought to trust him more. He can bring you out of any situation however ugly it is. One time, when Kaeron was still in hospital, I neither had money nor fuel and it was very late in the night. I confidently started the car and drove. I said, if I manage to get home it that would be great but if I do not, then I will get plan B. Somehow, the car got me home. The next morning, I managed to drive the car up to the Power FM offices before it stopped. That was one of those crazy moments but God showed His might and bailed me out.”
Reenah: “I learnt many things such as there is nothing impossible for God. He has our backs in every challenge in life. Even when people called in to assure us of their prayers and sent monetary contributions, it showed that a little help means a lot in time of distress. Also, the situation drew my husband and I closer than ever before.”
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