_______________

The Uganda Medical Board has approved Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago’s travel to India for anterior cervical decompression and fusion spinal surgery.

Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of Medical Services, in a letter to Dr Rishabh Kedia and Paul Verinder Singh, consultant neurosurgeons at Medanta Mediclinic Cybercity, New Delhi, in India dated April 16, 2024, noted that Lukwago had been cleared to travel with one attendant, his brother and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) had committed to meet the costs related to the travel, treatment and stay while in India.

“This is to introduce to you, His Worship Erias Lukwago, a 54-year-old male and Lord Mayor of Kampala who was diagnosed with cervical spine, C6-7, disc prolapse with C6 left foraminal stenosis and acute radiculopathy over two months ago. He has been undergoing conservative pain management with minimal improvement.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) done revealed C6-7 reduced disc height with normal disc signal, asymmetrical left-sided disc bulge with a spinal canal diameter of 11.46mm, cervical spondylotic changes with degenerations of L2-L3 intervertebral discs,” Mwebesa said.

Mwebesa further informed the hospital that Dr Norbert Orwoth an orthopaedic and spine surgeon at Mulago National Referral had been referred to the facility for anterior cervical decompression due to limited in-country operative capacity at the moment.

“He will travel with one attendant, his brother, and KCCA has committed to meet the costs related to his travel, treatment and stay in India,” Mwebesa added.

He also noted that “the Uganda Medical Board, has approved his travel to India for this anterior cervical decompression and fusion spinal surgery,” said his letter copied to the Minister of Health as well as the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health.

Efforts to speak to Lukwago on Wednesday, April 24, proved futile as sources close to him noted that he had flown out of the country on Wednesday morning for the treatment.

Lukwago was rushed to Kenya over the Easter weekend this year in severe pain to undergo specialised treatment and was subsequently admitted at Nairobi Hospital

He later underwent a surgical operation to remove a bulging vertebra from his neck.

Speaking to the media from his hospital bed at Nairobi Hospital, Lukwago said he was referred to Kenya after undergoing an MRI scan at Nakasero Hospital where doctors noticed that one of his cervical discs was swollen and pressing down on his nerve.

He said he had been feeling excruciating pain in his neck and that his left arm had become completely paralysed.

In Nairobi, he said, doctors confirmed that his cervical disc was indeed swollen and had compressed the nerve roots thus causing numbness and excruciating pain in the back and left arm.

He said he was supposed to undergo an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion procedure in which the swollen disc would be removed to relieve pressure on the spinal cord and nerve roots. 

This will be replaced with a bone graft, fastened with a metal plate to bridge the area.

This will not be the first time Lukwago is being rushed abroad for treatment. In 2020 and 2021, he was taken for treatment after he suffered a severe allergic reaction.