Health professionals pay tribute to DR Kigonya

Tributes have been flowing following the death of a top kidney expert in Kampala.

Dr Edward Kigonya, who was a senior consultant physician at Mulago Hospital, died at his home in Mbuya, after a long illness.

Kigonya was a specialist nephrologist and worked at many health facilities, including Nsambya and Joint Medical Store during his professional life.

Dr Sabrina Kitaka, a consultant paediatrician and lecturer at Makerere University School of Medicine, remembered the fallen doctor as a great teacher and physician.

"His nephrology classes were excellent and never forgotten. Our hearts are with his family during this very trying time.

Forever in our hearts. Fare thee well our Dear Teacher and Senior Colleague," she said.

To Okello Richard Fredrick, a doctor at St Mary's Lacor in Gulu district, Kigonya was a great doctor-trainer, who mingled the usual medical course units with other life skills to help his learners succeed in the modern job market.

"He is the one who introduced me to the world of critical thinking in medicine. May he rest in eternal peace and among the great," he said.

Geoffrey Bisoborwa, a child health and nutrition advisor at the World Health Organisation, regional office for Africa, said: "We have lost a great physician and teacher. He did not only teach us medicine but also how to behave as a member of the honourable profession. MHSRIP."

FOUNDING FATHER

Kigonya was one of the founders of Kampala Hospital, and his death comes 11 months after the death of his friend and co-founder of the hospital, Prof. Richard Masembe Kanyerezi.

Besides his medical work, Kigonya was an accomplished writer. His works have been published around the world, mostly in medical journals.

One of his publications, which ran in the East African Journal in 2014, tackled the topic of growing concern about the decline in standards of the undergraduate medical education in Uganda.

As well as heading the renal dialysis unit at Mulago Hospital, he also at one time worked as a senior consultant at Nsambya Hospital. In 2001, Cardinal Wamala appointed him to head a 20-member board of governors.

He was a member of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa and College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa. In one of her memoirs, Noeline Kaleeba, the founder of The AIDS Support Organisation, remembered Kigonya as a dedicated doctor.

Kaleeba, whose husband, Christopher Kaleeba, was one the first Ugandans to be diagnosed and die of AIDS, said while many doctors ran away due to stigma, it was Kigonya who remained behind and looked after her dying husband in Mulago hospital's Ward 6B, with medical intern Moses Kamya.

At the time, Kigonya was the medical superintendent of the hospital.

Kaleeba said her husband, Kaleeba, was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at Castle Hill Hospital in the UK, in June 1986 and died on January 23, 1987, two months after he had been admitted to Mulago.

Kigonya's wife, a senior consultant haematologist at Mulago Hospital, died in 2007. He is survived by a daughter and son.