Police is hunting for a nurse accused of demanding a bribe from a mother to facilitate a surgical procedure for her two-year old baby.
The toddler was referred to the hospital for an operation after he being diagnosed with intestinal obstruction.
The deceased, Aron Nabil died at Arua Regional Referral Hospital on Saturday night after delaying to undergo the emergency intestinal operation that had blocked food or liquid from passing through the small intestine or large intestine.
Relatives to the deceased claim the operation took place after close to 8 hours of delay, because the nurse on duty asked them to provide money for drugs and facilitation for treatment.
The accused nurse identified as Paul Wamala, attached to the Theatre department at the health facility reportedly solicited a bribe worth 210,000 Shillings.
Wamala allegedly asked for an initial deposit 30,000 Shillings in cash to buy medicines to commence the procedure. He then returned shortly after and demanded an additional 180,000 Shillings from the relatives which they didn’t have.
The relatives told police that after the money was paid, Wamala disappeared and only refunded the money through Mobile money, afte rthey threatened to report the matter to police.
“They told us this boy needed an operation, latest by Sunday morning, the doctor (Wamala) came from the theater and told us to pay 30.000 shillings to buy medicine for the procedure, which we did, he later returned after 30 minutes and asked for 100000 shillings which we paid as well, he again returned moments later asking for 80,000 shillings,” Emily Adiru a relative to the deceased said
Wamala has since denied the allegations claiming he never had a discussion with the concerned parties about money .
Dr. Gilbert Aniku, the acting hospital director says that the hospital will issue an official statement later since consultations about the matter are ongoing.
The case has been reported to Arua regional referral hospital police post under SD reference No:05/30/05/2022.
