By Innocent Kumchedwa, Investigative Journalist
Aliberto Tembo had tried not for the first, second or third time to calm his seven year old son Inno down, who could not contain the tears flooding his eyes.
Alibeto and Inno were seeing me off after an emotional interview about a mysterious death of Christina Tembo, Wife to Aliberto, mother to Inno and other two children and an aunt to many.
This was in August 2019, this time it was exactly two weeks after death of Christina. And perhaps the interview had come too soon for Inno to deal away with those unbearable memories of the circumstances surrounding the death of his mother, Christina whose death is the result of complications of tubal ligation surgery operation conducted at Area 25 Health Center in Lilongwe.
Tubal ligation is a medical term which stands for a surgical operation which women undertake as a means to keep them from conceiving forever, by tying of the fallopian tubes.
“It was a very shocking experience to me, taking into account the fact that, I lost her just like that, from surgery complications,” he remembers.
It all started on Thursday 7th August when Alibeto was at work at St Francisi Parish where he works as a garden boy,and that day Christina was due to have her jadelle removed at Area 25 health center.
Jadelle is a form of a female hormone used to prevent pregnancy and it is a long-term reversible family planning method that usually takes five years, and she wanted to have it replaced with Tubal ligation, the permanent solution.
Mostly, tubal ligation surgical operations are low-risk surgery which last about 30 minutes and most of the times women that have undergone this operation are able to return home on the same day.
Although Christina had to spenda day at the hospital as a prerequisite for the operation the next day,Friday 8th August, still more, she did not return home and her husband started looking for her.
“She had her Jadelle removed on Thursday, but we didn’t know that she had been advised to spend the night at the hospital, since the next day she was to undergo operation.
“So after noticing that she didn’t return home that day, together with my daughter we came here (Area 25 Health Centre) to look for her. When she found her at the ward, we were surprised and shocked to find her in deep pain and unattended to, her bed filled with vomits and blood,” he says.
Aliberto recalls the exact words his wife uttered while suffering in deep pain. He said, she could express it that she could feel in her body that the operation went amiss.
“She sighed, and said, (My time is coming to an end. Something has gone wrong with the operation).When she said that I tried to calm her down and stop her from thinking about death, but she kept on, and said, (this doctor has killed me. But my worry is that I am going to leave behind my children),” he says.
After her operation Christina, spent two days at the hospital without registering any improvement on the excruciating pain she was undergoing through. Nonetheless, doctors discharged her.
According to Aliberto, the night after she was discharged was one of the most dreadful last days of her life. He remembered, that on that day the whole family barely slept as she groaned uncontrollably and her abdomen was hugely swollen.
The next day morning, they rushed with her to ABC clinic for radiography examination. And the tests came out positive for ascites.
After the test, doctors advised them to rush with her to Kamuzu central hospital (KCH).
Sadly, just after a day at KCH, Christina breathed her last. It was a somber day for Area 25 residents, everyone young and old mourned for her.
Many could not fathom how tubal ligation operation could result into unexpected death. Christina’s death brought anger to members of the community, and they demanded to see justice before Christina could be lowered six feet under.
As determined as they were, but they could not foretell that solving mysterious deaths in Malawi, especially for the poor, could be fruitless adventure.
Not just because autopsy or postmortem world over cost a fortune but because some police officers want to profit even in a situation that such a service is to be done for free.
77 year old Alfred Tembowho was father-in-law to Christina, with his team, that included chief for Area 25 sector 7,tried in vain to push for Christina’s autopsy.
What is so disheartening about their failed autopsy, is the fact that they failed even though doctors at Kamuzu Central Hospital offered to do it for them cost free. All what the doctors wanted was a letter from Kanengo police in Area 25.
“Around 9 am when we were about to leave for mortuary, I received a call from a doctor at Kamuzu Central Hospital. Asking me to go to police and obtain a letter for them to carry out an autopsy.
“She said that I should give them that letter because it was going to make it possible for me to establish the real cause of my daughter’s death” he says.
Sadly,Christina’s autopsy failed, indeed failing at the hands of police who demanded MK200 000 in exchange of this letter which the doctors at Kamuzu Central Hospital needed most at that time to do the postmoterm free of charge.
“Upon the request of this doctor, we passed by Kaneng police where they directed us to the CID office. At the CID, they took us to the appropriate office which they said deals with that. We explained our case that we wanted to get a letter for doctors to carry out a postmortem.
“But the officers said, this letter is not for free, he asked if I have MK 200 000. I told them that I did not have the money and that the doctor did not say that I will pay for this letter. The officers said that then there is nothing they can do without this money,” he narrates.
Christina’s failed postmortem is a clear vindication of how bad apples in police service deny the poor justice.
However, examples are bound of how some police officers become an obstruction to the poor’s pursuits of justice.
Joel Tembenuwas a very popular man around the Area 25 Nsungwi Mango market. But it is almost a year now since he departed. His death is one of those mysteries that failed to solve because police acted as a barrier.
One day Joel picked a quarrel with a friend, and he was stabbed on the thigh. When he went to Area 25 health center they stitched him, without doing further examination to establish the extent of the cut. As a result, day by day he would could not and heal. After three days, they reported back to Area 25 clinic where they referred him to kamuzu central hospital and died the same day.
His wife now a widow and a mother of two children, the first one Bridget who is 16 years old and the young one Benjamin who is 10, says that police’s corruption failed her to knowing the actual cause of her husband’s death because when they went at Kanengo police asking for postmoterm they demanded them to pay MK200 000. Even the chief tried to reason with them, but they maintained that if we don’t have the money then they will not give us the letter.
“Since it was a police case, we were asked to do a postmortem. At the police they said the doctor needed Mk 200 000 for this to happen. Because we did not have the money, the postmoterm did take place. We thought they were going to do it for free, because we knew that at police this is for free,” she says.
Police National Spokesperson James Kadadzera has said that where a postmoterm inquest has criminal elements in nature it is the police that are supposed to pay for the cost of the service and that no one is supposed to pay anymoney for the free-service.
However, police can reject a request for postmortem if they deem it not necessary as it would result into an obvious answer.
Kadadzela explains; “We bear all the costs that are involved during a postmortem. We do this so that we can have evidence that may help us in court if there is any case, not relatives for the deceased shouldering the costs. But we shoulder them (costs) as police, that’s government and that’s our role and dutysothat we establish circumstances leading to the death”.
Ombudsman Martha Chizuma said once a deceased is buried it is almost impossible for people to establish cause of death. However, she expressed discontentment over the conduct ofdemanding money for services that would have been for free.
For Aliberto indeed the search for justice in mystery death is a fruitless adventure. Its four months now since his wife Christina was buried going back to do postmortem cannot yield anything.
And even the doctors who carried out the tubal ligation surgery maintain that they are not guilty until proven so by a postmortem result.
Dr Ibe Iwo was one of the lead doctors who conducted the tubal ligation surgery at area 25 health center.
“The actual story behind that it is not something I want to unpack here, but all I can say is that, it is an unfortunate experience, unfortunate event that happened. And it would have been more helpful if we had more facts around her death such as a postmortem. Because it will be helpful to the service providers and to the family to have closure as to exactly what happened.
“What we do know is that her procedure and care was done with the best possible level of care that we can provide. But it is unfortunate that it ended up into the death of someone,” says the doctor.
The story was first aired on Maziko Radio, Malawi local community Radio
