How the President Died

Well, it's time to focus on the news back home today, 'back home' referring to Malawi this time.  Last week, news outlets in Malawi released an investigative commission's full report on former President Bingu wa Mutharika's death on April 5 last year.

I took a look at part of it today--starting in chapter 2 "Evidence Taken Regarding the Death of the President." It was actually a lot more readable than I had anticipated, but I only read up to the part where he was first declared him dead, which I will include here for your interest:

Mrs. Stella Warren testified to the Commission that at the time she went into the ambulance where the President was, she noticed that "the President was dead". Dr. Isyu Mwakasungula also testified that at the time that they were carrying the President onto the trolley, he was motionless and there was no response of any sort from him. His eyes were closed. In Dr. Mwakasungula's opinion it gave the impression that the President was critically ill or unconscious or was dead.

But because you probably don't want to read the entire report, I will give a summary of the section I read and some highlights.  Summary: the President was meeting an MP when suddenly he had a heart attack; he was soon put in an ambulance and driven to the hospital, but he apparently died on the way.

In the course of events, there were several unfortunate things noted in the report which prevented the President from getting the best care:

• The President's doctor, when called upon the President's collapse, did not have the President's emergency aid kit with him.  It was at his house.
• An ambulance was not ready immediately.  The unconscious President was carried onto the elevator at the State House and waited there for a car to be found.
• The President's doctor was not able to secure his airway because he was too weak to lift him: 

• The Commission was informed that about November 2011, Dr. Namarika was involved in a road accident on his way to Ndata Farm House, the President’s private residence in Thyolo. Following the accident, Dr. Namarika suffered a dislocation of his left arm and was undergoing physiotherapy at the time of the President’s collapse. Dr. Namarika told the Commission that he could not effectively use his left arm because it had very limited movement. The Commission established that the doctor could not successfully secure the airway at the time of the President’s collapse because for him to do that he had to intubate the President. He could not intubate the President because for him to do that, he had to elevate the President to get the path to the neck. The doctor could not manage to do that because of the limitation that he had in the use of his arm and that, in his own words, “the President was so big.”

President Bingu wa Mutharika with the Obamas

• While in the ambulance, someone tried to call Kamuzu Central Hospital to alert them that the President was coming, but none of their numbers worked.  Out of ten "switchboard numbers," only two were working, but the calls did not go through.
• When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, it appeared that the President was dead, so, though disatisfactory, it was inconsequential that some emergency drugs were not available in the ICU and ICU staff had to be dispatched to go find them, whether in or outside the hospital.

It was here that I stopped reading and started blogging, later cooking a bowl of grits (humbles me to admit that) and settling down to enjoy it while finishing up this post.  In going back over the report to write this, I read further that the President's physician insisted the medical staff continue CPR for an hour, despite the President's apparent death and the staff's complaints of being tired.  With such extensive CPR, the President's ribs were broken.

The report also contains chapters on how the President was subsequently flown to South Africa (at the time, those of us who had heard that the President may have died were told he was in critical condition and seeking further treatment in South Africa), the brief power struggle between the President's political party (DPP) and that of the then Vice President Joyce Banda (PP) over the constitutionality of the Vice President succeeding when she and the President had been at odds and she had recently left his party and created her own, and the infamous prophecy of a Nigerian cleric that an African president would die.

Scrolling past those sure-to-be-fascinating topics, I sampled a few of the most recent comments posted on Nyasa Times. One commentater, "Mlomwe Original," had a personal message in capital letters for many of the principal characters:

• President's physician: "How could he keep the first aid kit of the president at his residence....STUPID DOCTOR."
• ICU staff: "I understand from the report that they...even fractured the some ribs of the patient,...I can assume that most patient in ICU do not come have been dying the same way because you end up breaking their ribs thereby aggravating their condition....YOU SHOULD ALSO BE CAUTIONED OR BE SENT TO REFRESHER COURSE."
• MP present during heart attack: "from the report I don't see you at KCH [hospital], are u a real Malawian Mother, YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BE AN MP."
• "Midnight Five" (presumably those who met secretly to try to keep the then Vice President from succeeding): I WILL NEVER NEVER EVER FORGIVE YOU AND I EVEN HATE TO HEAR YOUR NAMES>WHY ARE YOU STILL WALKING FREE....STUPID.
• Cabinet (on division over succession): "do you know what you could have caused to the Malawi nation????? By now we could could have have in civil war. Two camps could have emerged, one for your camp and one for the then VP Mrs Banda, and this could have escalated to something grave.....as long as I live YOU WILL NEVER SEE MY VOTE....FROM NOW ON i WILL DECAMPAIGN YOU USING ANY MEANS I WILL USE."

A commentater called "Chris" bemoaned the lack of patriotism in the President's care:

why was there no deputy doctor? The on call doctor had a bad arm. Are we serious? He was not treated as a president and that pains me. No matter who is in office, no matter the party affilation; let us serve our presidents with all our heart. If this was a more patriotic country (e.g the USA) that doctor would have found the strength to use his other arm and perform CPR and intebate the President. Im so sad! They did not have a gurney to move the president to the ambulance? Seriously! They were carrying him. How sad is that. That alone could have worsened his state. Im so sad. Malwi needs a revival. We need to stop only thinking about ourselves. I really can’t believe it.

One commentator, "4kwacha," complained about the typos and the President's weight: "Too many typos in this report, is this the quality of government documents?.... the so called medical personnel  should encourage the president to eat healthy diets and exercise (Bingu was also obese as stated in the report)."

Another commentater, "Clement Njunga," said exactly what you are probably thinking after reading this long blog post: "It has taken me 5days to complete reading the whole report. I am buffled and tung tied!"