Ex-bus conductor needs Shs3m for kidney operation

He has to move with a bag attached to a tube that runs from his urethra, which is an aid that helps him pass urine. But an operation could help him return to normal.

It has been a hard last couple of years for Issah Ntambi, who has urethral obstruction. He went to Mulago hospital, the first time in 2010 where he was rushed to the theatre to release the urine that had accumulated and was discharged after a couple of months.

Uncomfortable
This admission and re-admission would become the routine and his way of life, since. “All together, I have spent about two years and eight months in the hospital,” he says.

He walks around, catheter inserted and a bag attached at the end of which he puts in his coat pocket. He wears a brown heavy coat on a hot afternoon because he has to have somewhere to put the bag.

He excuses himself at the beginning of the interview to go empty the bag that he has not emptied since he travelled to Kampala from Nabbingo, where he stays with his family.

Clean the system
He has to drink at least five litres of water every day, as the doctors instructed, to help clean the system. This is usually uncomfortable because, Ntambi explains, “I always feel the urge to pee, but I can’t.”

Everything goes through the catheter, and he is worried that this might eventually affect his reproductive system. In addition to the discomfort of the unrelieved urge to pass urine, Ntambi can go weeks without excreting.

How it began
He believes that it all began during an accident on the Kisoro-Kabale Road while he worked as a conductor on the Horizon buses in 2005. In that accident, he remembers, five people died while several others survived with broken limbs.

For him, he got off with minimal injury or so he thought. He went to a clinic for treatment of pain. “My inside was hurting,” he says.

There was also some blood in his urine and he was given Cipro as well as what he describes as “green tablets” that he was told would “unblock” him. (He was experiencing some excretion problems). Early this year, he would recount this all to a doctor at Kibuli hospital who told him there was a connection.

Financial drain
After he stopped working as a conductor with Horizon buses, he washed cars to earn a living. Ntambi talks of waking up at 4am to go to work and returning home at 11pm. He was able to pay the rent, and take care of his five children (aged 12 to six years).

The constant admission and readmission has drained him of all his finances and he now remains at the mercy of his friends in Nabbingo. Friends pay for the children’s school fees and he is only asked to cover fees for the books. The landlord lets him stay on loan and helps him with food as well.

Hope for him
It is hard not to be nice to the 34-year-old ex-bus conductor who looks older because of the pain and stress that can be seen on his face. He moves with slow short steps and turns with a grimace. There is hope for him though. Hope that costs Shs3m in an operation at Kibuli Muslim Hospital. He has approached Horizon Buses, his former employers, but found there was a change in ownership.

There has not been much help with all the other avenues that he has tried, but he is determined not just to get his life back, but to be able to take care of his children again. When he talks of them, he stops to take a breath to compose himself. “I cry sometimes when I look at them,” he says.

To Help:
You can call Issa Ntambi on 077-7563681. He can receive mobile money on this number. You can also deposit money on his account.
Account Name: Issa Ntambi
Acc No: 1012100581780, Equity Bank

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