Zimbabweans have been left heartbroken after a Mutare based medical doctor died following a road accident while coming from saving lives.
Award winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono reported that Dr Mthabisi Nembaware had gone to a rural hospital in Hauna, Manicaland, where he provided essential health care to the local community.
Hardworking Doctor Letdown By Lack of Landing Lights in Mutre
On Friday, September 22, 2023, he was on his way to Mutare, the provincial capital when the car he was travelling in burst it’s tyre and crashed, leaving him with severe traumatic brain injury.
Mthabisi Nembaware died at Mutare Hospital while waiting for an ambulance to be airlifted to Harare.
In a desperate attempt to save his life, his family raised US$5,000 to hire a private air ambulance service, but they faced another problem. The Mutare airport does not have working landing lights, which prevented the plane from taking off at night.
Fellow Doctors Outraged
Chin’ono said over 10 doctors wrote to him “expressing their legitimate anger at what happened to one of their colleagues yesterday in Manicaland.”
Dr. Nembaware, who had been working at a rural hospital in Hauna, was involved in a road accident while travelling to Mutare. Despite being stabilized at Mutare Hospital for severe Traumatic Brain Injury, the hospital lacked a functional ICU unit and city-to-city ambulance service. Thus, he needed to be transferred to Harare for specialized care via air ambulance.
Chin’ono wrote:
Despite parading the overpriced so called helicopter ambulance, the State couldn’t airlift him to Harare. His family put together US$5,000 to airlift him using a private ambulance air service. But sadly the air ambulance plane couldn’t go because Mutare airport doesn’t have working landing lights. Unfortunately, Dr Mthabisi Nembaware succumbed to the injuries at around 11 pm last night. The doctor has become yet another unnecessary statistic of a collapsed healthcare services. Our country has adequate resources to have a good functional healthcare system, but the public funds are ruthlessly looted to the detriment of the whole nation. Millions of dollars are spent annually buying thousands of luxury cars for Zimbabwe’s unethical political elite, money that could have been deployed fix the critical public services like healthcare. May Dr Mthabisi Nembaware Rest in Peace.
