In his late 50s, Fred Bageyanga is an ambulance driver working with Entebbe regional referral hospital. He is remarkably the driver who ferried the first Covid-19 patient from Entebbe airport to the hospital. In March 2020 when the world was losing thousands of lives to the deadly Coronavirus pandemic, every country was in total shock regarding the unknown.
Uganda was not spared. It was an absolute shock for the country after the first case was confirmed by a Ugandan businessman who had traveled shopping in Dubai. The ambulance driver at Entebbe regional referral hospital reiterated what he termed as a shocking evening when he was instructed to pick the Covid-19 patient from Entebbe airport! “At first I thought my bosses were fed up with working with me. I thought I was being paraded as a sacrifice or worse so, an experiment,” recollects Bageyanga.
He, however, picked himself up and took on the job he had signed up for. “I was dressed in all the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and off I dashed to the airport,” narrates Bageyanga. He made it back to the hospital and only waited for his fate. The ambulance driver could not return to his family, fearing that he’d spread the deadly virus to his loved ones.
Meanwhile, he got used to the new twist of the job and decided to carry on. Several patients were ferried by Bageyanga although most of them could not recognise the person who was driving them. Whereas he remained cautious enough to always wear PPEs and sanitize thoroughly, Bageyanga did not escape contracting the Virus. In December 2020, he was admitted to the Entebbe hospital, from where he underwent rigorous treatment and isolation. Luckily, he recovered and resumed work to date.
He prides himself in his work and lauds the hospital administration for granting him a chance to work for a period of more than 20years. He has managed to fend for his family from the nature of work he does. “We often drive like mad people and for that, we ask for forgiveness because we are always trying to save lives,” says Bageyanga.
What others say, Roselyn
Mutonyi the Principal Nursing Officer (PNO) at Entebbe hospital reminisced when the hospital had just received the first case of Covid19. “Everyone was shaking and shying away because it was a new disease in the country. She also reiterated that Entebbe hospital was the first health facility to operate a pregnant Covid19 patient among other complications, but nobody has ever come up to thank us.
Meanwhile, Dr. Moses Muwanga the medical director lauded the health ministry for providing necessary PPEs to health workers and medicines for Covid19, hence providing free services to the general public. According to Dr. Muwanga, the medical staff needs to be motivated in one or another. He implored the general public to always appreciate the work done by medics and abscond from propagating only what they hear as being negative stories. Whereas he noted that the number of Covid-19 patients at Entebbe hospital has reduced, Dr. Muwanga implored people to vaccinate and continue observing SOPs.
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