The accident occurred on June 7. “While I was travelling from Masaka to Kampala for business. We were in a private car, a Ford Taurus just my driver and I. I was buckled up in the co- driver’s seat. We were on the highway around Mpigi (ku Bikondo) and good enough, we weren’t driving at a very high speed, when a taxi getting on the highway from a feeder road knocked our car head on. I guess my driver thought the taxi driver had noticed him come, so he didn’t break to let him into the road. But the taxi driver also didn’t wait for our car to first pass, so both cars collided. ” Mugoto narrates her ordeal.
Pain and agony
There were no deaths recorded, according to Mugoto, though a number of people sustained injuries. Of all the victims, she was the most affected. “The driver in my car only got a few injuries on his face, the taxi passengers also got a few bruises. I on the other hand, broke my left leg starting from the bone in my thigh (femur) down to the bone below the knee (Tibia). Actually, by the time rescuers came to cut me out from the car, which had terribly been disfigured, to take me to Mpigi General Hospital, that particular bone was exposed, without flesh which had been peeled off and was just sagging. I was in agony, pain and fear,” she says.
From the scene of the accident, she was taken unconscious to Mpigi General Hospital where little could be done, and so, she was referred to the orthopedic ward of Mulago Hospital, the next day for further treatment, where she has stayed for the last six or so weeks.
The healing process
At Mulago, she has undergone a series of operations where pieces of her flesh were stitched together and an external fixator put in her tibia (a surgical instrument used to stabilise bone and soft tissues at a distance from the injury) to reposition the bone. She is yet to go for a final surgery to have her femur fixed too. “It has been a painful process since I got the accident, but now the pain has at least subsided. On a scale of 100, I feel only 70 per cent of the pain now. This whole experience has changed my life totally,” Mugoto says, shaking her head thoughtfully.
Mugoto is not only an accident survivor, but a business woman. A woman who has fended for her family for all these years, and a mother separated from her family by circumstances. That has been the most difficult part to deal with as she narrates. “I have a young, sweet girl who is in Senior One. She doesn’t even know that I’m in the hospital or that I got an accident because I didn’t want her to go through the worrying and fear and insecurity. A few weeks back was her visiting day, but I couldn’t go, so she asked her aunt why I hadn’t come. They gave me the phone and I talked to her, it broke my heart, but I told her I had travelled to Dar es Salaam to one of her uncle’s to do business. But she was crying, I guess she feels something isn’t right.”
A new outlook on life
Notwithstanding, this experience, though painful both in flesh and on the inside, has given her a fresh perspective to life. “I cannot thank my family and husband Dingiro Kaiso enough for the love, and care and concern. I have realised that family are the only people who can appreciate you, just as you are.
And now I know how precious life is, I know how it feels knowing you won’t be alive the next minute. I know what pain feels like and I know how it feels not being able to do anything for yourself. I have been on this bed for this long and I have planned how I want to live my life when I get out of here. I may not be able to walk perfectly like I used to, but that won’t stop me from working with every strength and breath I have left,” Mugoto says with a sparkle in her eyes.
Coping
1. Exposure: Minise exposure to coverage of the accident.
2. Accept your feelings: Emotions, including shock, anger, and guilt may overwhelm you. Accepting these feelings and allowing yourself to feel what you feel, is necessary for healing.
3. Challenge your sense of helplessness: you can still participate in activities.
4. Get moving; do some exercises.
5. Reach out to others: don’t isolate yourself from friends and social activities.
6. Make stress reduction a priority: do activities that reduce stress deliberately.
7. Eat a healthy diet: this helps in healing and improves your mood.
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com
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