Below is a transcript of the Dr. Jonah Kule Memorial Lecture, delivered by Scott to the Federation of Uganda Medical Students Association on 31 March 2018 at 10:30am at the Makerere University Main Campus.
(it was a 45 minute lecture so be warned, it's a long read...)
______________________________________________________________________________
Good
morning. Thank you very much for the
invitation to deliver the Dr. Jonah Kule Memorial Lecture to the Federation of
Ugandan Medical Students Association.
I would
like to acknowledge the presence of Masika Constance, the firstborn daughter of
Jonah Kule. She is a graduate of the Uganda Christian University, and was 15
years old when her father died from Ebola.
Her younger sister, Birra Phiona, who is studying Law at Uganda
Christian University is also here.
It is
fitting that I am delivering a lecture memorializing the life of Dr. Jonah Kule
on the weekend of the Celebration of Easter.
Easter is the climax of the Christian calendar in which we remember the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter
weekend begins with the observance of Passover.
Christians call this Maundy Thursday.
Jews hold a traditional meal called the Seder during which there is a
reading of the Haggadah, a Jewish text which means “the telling”. During the
Passover Meal, the story of the Passover is recounted. It is a story of God’s
deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. I am here for a re-telling of the story of
our friend, our colleague, Dr. Jonah Kule.
I have two objectives for this re-tellling. The first is to honor the memory of our
friend and colleague who gave his life serving the sick. The second is to challenge you, a group of
future doctors, to consider how you will live and work – and whether the life
of Dr. Jonah Kule is one to which you might aspire.
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Our part in
the story began with our arrival in Bundibugyo District in 1993. We came as
part of a Team, trying to bring life and redemption to a remote and forgotten
district with efforts in health, education, church planting and Bible
translation. When we arrived, there were
49 Districts in Uganda. In the education
sector, the New Vision always published a list of the District Performance for
senior secondary O-level results --which is a proxy I think of development – and
Bundibugyo was always dead last. My wife
and I are physicians so our piece was in promoting health and healing the sick—preventive
and curative health. As we moved into needy
communities with immunization campaigns and health messages we met a young
energetic Clinical Officer named Jonah Kule. Jonah was a Mukonjo, a person of the mountains.
We learned very quickly that this young
man had a gift for shepherding communities. He could teach, persuade, correct,
encourage, guide—and all the while lead community groups on a path of
self-discovery and mobilization towards healthier lives--idn a way that we as
outsiders could not…![]()
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We got to
know Jonah and his family very well. He eventually had five daughters—Masika,
Biira, Maga, Keren, and Serah—who were in the same age range as our own four
children. We shared holiday meals together in each other’s homes. We traveled
together. We were professional colleagues working for health in Bundibugyo.
After a few years, Jonah shared his dream of going to medical school with
us. We decided this was a worthy
investment of time and money, so we gave him the green light to pursue a medical
admission. Jonah was over 30 years old so he took the Makerere University “Mature
Age Entry” exam. He scored in near the
top of all who took the exam. He was called in and asked how he cheated. He must have cheated—because it was not
possible that a student from Bundibugyo District could have performed so
well. So, they deleted his result and
sent him away. He was determined,
however, and came back the next year and again scored in the top three of all
who sat. This time they accepted his
result and he was admitted to the Makerere University Medical School.
Jonah was a
smart guy, but biochemistry almost did him in.
I think he passed by 1%. But he was very experienced seeing patients as
a hardworking clinical officer. So, he
did well at MUMed during the clinical rotations. But he was always singled out in class by the
professors. No matter which subject
whether it was surgery or obstetrics—they would look at Jonah and say, “and if
you are practicing way out in the bush with few resources—like, in Bundibugyo,
this is how you need to think about this.”
It was a slight humiliation.
Calling out Bundibugyo as the least developed and most backward place in
Uganda.
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Nevertheless,
Jonah persevered and graduated in 2005 from Makerere—and was the first to
graduate as a native born from Bundibugyo in 29 years. The last previous Bundibugyo-born graduate
was William Sikyewunda who went on to be a member of Parliament and the
District Health Officer. The New Vision’s headline on 31 March 2005 said
“Bundibugyo’s Reason to Smile”. He went on to do his Internship Year in 2006 at
Rubaga Hospital where he was much loved and appreciated for his serious work
ethic.
Our
mission, World Harvest Mission, sponsored Jonah with a Bond Agreement that he
would return to serve in Bundibugyo District for at least 5 years. For Jonah that was not a burden – he desired
to return to Bundibugyo. Immediately
upon finishing his internship at the end of 2006, he did return to Bundibugyo. He was immediately posted to the District
Hospital. It was a place he knew like
the back of his hand since he had worked there for many years as a Clinical
Officer prior to attending medical school. But there was still a requirement
that he have an Official Tour at the time of his posting. On that tour, he was
shown the Operating Theatre where he found a pregnant woman lying on the
operating table. He asked why she was lying there and was told that she was
waiting for the family to come up with the money for the surgeon before he was
willing to do the surgery. Jonah was
annoyed and immediately terminated the tour.
He said, “Get me theatre scrubs and boots…I will operate on this mother—for
no money.” That story spread like
wildfire in the ensuing days. “Dr. Jonah
is here… and he is not charging money to do surgery!!”
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Jonah came
back not just to be a doctor but to stand up to the rampant corruption. That action shook up the District. But life became hard for him. Not everyone was happy that he came back to
serve. There were those who feared him
and were jealous. Everybody knew that
Dr. Sikyewunda came from Makerere Medical School and became a member of
Parliament. People began to talk already
that Dr. Jonah would be the first Mukonjo Parliament Member from Bundibugyo. That was a radical idea. I don’t think Jonah was entirely opposed to
the talk. He knew that corruption was
rampant and might need to be cleaned out from within. But I think he thought that would be some
years down the road.
So, he began
to serve his people…
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So, when
there were a rash of deaths in Kikyo Sub-County (a mountainous area on the
slopes of the Rwenzoris) in August of 2007 (six months after he began his
posting), he took an interest. He went
up and treated people and investigated.
There were a cluster of deaths in one family – about five. The father and all of the sons of one
family—and then soon many more from that clan.
So, the pattern seemed to be infectious. In retrospect, it is thought that these men
were involved in butchering monkeys hunted in the mountains and then many more
died who were involved with the burials. But that was covered up because it was
an illegal practice. Jonah brought in
the District Surveillance Officer who sent off samples for testing for
Hemorrhagic Fevers to UVRI. The tests
were negative. There were no hemorrhagic
features clinically. Malaria tests were also negative. It was mostly a picture of fever, vomiting
and diarrhea. At the time -we thought it
might be typhoid.
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Jonah
passed by our house one day on his way up to the Kikyo Health Center. Jennifer went into our stores and gave Jonah
all of the Ciprofloxacin, gloves and alcohol hand sanitizer that we had. He was in a hurry, but we insisted that he
wait until we get these supplies together.
He did wait but as he pulled out on his dilapidated motorcycle he
laughed and said, “I must serve my people.
If I die, then I die.”
And so it
went. Things smoldered and flared
through September, October and into November.
Finally, on Thursday 29 November 2007, we got a call informing us that
the CDC figured out that this disease was due to a new strain, the fifth
identified, of the Ebola virus. Much
later in 2008, it was given the name Ebola
bundibugyo. Nobody in Bundibugyo or
Uganda was happy about the fact that it was named for a place in Uganda.
So, this
was the 17th documented outbreak of Ebola since 1976. All of the significant clinical outbreaks had
occurred in Africa except for some of laboratory contaminations in other parts
of the world. The last previous Ugandan
outbreak prior to this was in Gulu in 2000.
Uganda lost another hero due to that outbreak, Dr. Matthew Lukwiya, who
died while caring for Ebola patients at the St. Mary’s Hospital in Lacor on 5
December 2000 – almost exactly 7 years prior to Dr. Jonah’s death.
As soon as the
diagnosis was announced, Uganda MOH epidemiologists visited Bundibugyo and reviewed
the records of many of the cases as they could find and decided that officially
speaking (during that early period of the epidemic) there were 79 cases with a
43% death rate. My own opinion is that
it is a significant underestimate. They
used extremely strict case definitions and had no medical records for many
patient deaths which made it impossible for them to be categorized as
Ebola-related deaths.
So,
we received the news from the USA CDC and immediately changed our approach to
the way we handled patients, but by that time it was too late….
So,
let me try to walk through the timeline of the final ten days of Jonah…
Friday 23
November is the day Jonah believed himself to have been
infected. That was the day he and I examined Jeremiah Muhindo. Ebola experts call this type of patient a
“super-infector”. Very sick patients
with high viral loads and lots of caregiver exposures. He was an important man in the community –
many people were involved in his care.
There were five health care workers who died at Bundibugyo Hospital and
they all had contact with this patient:
--Jonah
--Rose Bulinpikya, nurse matron
--Johnson Kiza nurse
--Joshua Kule, senior clinical officer
-- Asanasio
Matte, ophthalmic assistant. (few of the patients in this epidemic had bleeding
manifestations, but many did have conjunctivitis, so the ophthalmic assistant
got involved – again, before we knew it was Ebola).
In between
two of the times we saw the patient together, Jonah went in alone and arranged
a face mask of oxygen onto the dying man, hoping to provide some relief or
comfort. He was not wearing gloves because he could not find any at the
hospital at that moment, and he felt that his friend needed the oxygen. That
was his greatest exposure.
Sunday 25
November Jonah
traveled to Kampala to pick up Masika from school as they were breaking off
later in the week.
Wednesday
28 November he
began to notice a headache, and wondered if he was getting malaria. (5 days
from last exposure, though of course he’d had earlier ones too).
Thursday
29 Nov the EBOLA
epidemic was announced by the Ministry of Health. Jonah’s headache persisted in
spite of first line malaria treatment, and he vomited twice. He instructed his
family to wash the floor with bleach, to not touch him, and to not share his
food or drink. He picked up his oldest daughter Masika from boarding school,
and by the time they came home he was feeling weaker and worse, slumped over on
his young brother’s shoulder. We talked to him on the phone about this time –
our first time to talk since the announcement of the Ebola epidemic. I asked “How are you doing?” With a sort of nervous laugh, he said “well,
I’m not feeling so well.”
Friday 30 Nov he had two malaria
smears at a private clinic up the road from his house, one positive and one
negative. Though he still hoped his illness was malaria, he talked to a doctor
friend who encouraged him to be admitted, so they hired boda-bodas and both
rode to Mulago Hospital. There he was put in an isolation tent.
Saturday 1 Dec a blood sample was
taken to test for the Ebola virus.
Sat to Monday he was mostly up and talking during the days, still having fever,
vomiting, and some diarrhea. Then his urine output slowed down, so the staff
began to give IV fluids, but in retrospect he was not dehydrated but rather in
renal failure. He was thirsty, and at times hungry. He remained optimistic
until Monday that he would recover. His family would come and see him from
outside the tent flap, talking loudly to communicate but not touching. The
Mulago Hospital doctor assigned to his care had fled, but MSF Spain doctors
checked him a couple of times a day. His young brother sometimes entered the
tent to care for him when no nurse or other medical person was available. He
was alone much of the time.
Monday 3 Dec he began to have chest pain. He told his family this was a
bad sign, that he had seen patients and when they had chest pain they were
getting much worse. His brother describes finding him reading a medical text
and thinking through his symptoms and what was happening. He read them some Bible
verses.
Tuesday 4 Dec his chest pain became worse. He could not always talk
because of breathlessness, taking several breaths to get words out, so his
brother just kept quiet. He also felt a lot of abdominal pain and weakness. His
young brother was finishing A levels and left to take his last exam. When he
returned he found that the MSF team was in the tent and they told him to wait
somewhere else. Later he saw Jonah’s body. I think the hardest thing for the
family was that Jonah died without any of them around, alone in that tent.
That’s hard for us too. His brother and the Mulago staff decided that it was
best not to tell the family that day, they should keep it under wraps until the
morning. But Jennifer did inform the family due to direct information from MSF,
for which his wife and sister were very grateful.
The picture of Jonah in this situation is somber but not desperate. He knew
what was happening to him. He followed his own symptoms and watched them
unfold. He knew the choices he had made to care for patients might cost his
life. It was five days from exposure to illness, and six days from the illness
to death.
After
Jonah’s death, we spoke with doctors from MSF who had cared for him. It was spine-tingling to hear Jonah speak
from beyond the veil. Tuesday afternoon,
he was still walking and talking and said to them, “I have seen these patients
die and I know that I am dying.” I don’t
think his doctors really believed him.
Moments before he died he said, “I am going to die now. And I pray that
no one should ever have to die of this disease again.” Right to his last moment he was thinking like
the compassionate doctor that he was, looking beyond himself to others.
The final
numbers of the Bundibugyo Ebola epidemic are not huge:
Cases: 143
Deaths: 36
Case Fatality
Rate (CFR): 25.2%
The CDC Team
in Atlanta published a summary in the journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases,
and they only officially recognized those Ebola patients who had laboratory
confirmation of their infections:
Total
infections: 56
Total
deaths: 17
CFR: 40%
This is
almost identical to the overall death rate of the massive Ebola epidemic in
West Africa of 2015-16.
Ironically Jonah’s
death was not included in the official tally of deaths of the Bundibugyo Ebola
epidemic because he died in Kampala.
These
numbers are super tiny compared to the 2015-16 recent epidemic in West Africa
where
Cases: 28,616
(200x bigger)
Deaths:
11,310 (300x more)
CFR: 39.5%
Bundibugyo
was not the largest epidemic in history.
But we did learn more about the disease as a result.
It was a
tremendously organized effort. Large
organizations came and invested enormous amounts of manpower and money: the Uganda MOH, Uganda Red Cross, Medicins
sans Frontiers, the USA CDC, and the WHO.
There was one member of the WHO team who had been present at ALL of the
previous Ebola epidemics. He was
primarily interested in trying to understand where the Ebola virus was coming
from.
The Ebola
Task Force included all of these organizations and was headed by the RDC and
the Uganda MOH.
It was
composed of a number of sub-committees:
1. Clinical Care (MSF)– organizing the
care of the sick
2. Social Mobilization (MOH/Red Cross)—the
community educators putting out messages of prevention
3. Contact Tracing (WHO)– following up
on those potentially exposed
4. Lab (CDC)
5. Logistics/Finance – Ug MOH
We learned
this about Ebola:
Incubation: 2-21 days (the larger the viral
exposure, the shorter the incubation)
Transmission: contact (no evidence of airborne
transmission – except perhaps droplet transmission when health care providers
have been sprayed down and blood has been aerosolized). One brief anecdote here…The Sunday after
Jonah died, Jennifer and I were home alone, having breakfast. It was eerily quiet. No kids (we sent them to Kampala so they wouldn't be at risk if we got sick).
No visitors because people thought we might be infected…and then I cell phone rang. The guy on the other end of the line said, “Please hold for the President…”
President Museveni then came on the line. We had a 10 minute conversation in which he
asked lots of specific and intelligent questions about Ebola. Specifically he wanted to know if Ebola could
penetrate intact skin (my best answer: NO) because he was trying to make public health
recommendations for his country. At the end of the conversation he asked, “Is
there anything I can do for you?"
I always regretted
that I didn’t ask him for Ugandan citizenship for me and Jennifer :(
Reservoir: to the best of my knowledge it was during this epidemic that they made progress in understanding that the long-term reservoir of the Ebola virus was Fruit bats.
Intermediatehost: primates (it is
believed that the first cases in Kikyo on the mountainside occurred in a family
who were hunting and butchering monkeys)
Those at
risk: Health care
workers and family care givers and especially those that bury the dead.
This is the
insidious and seemingly evil part of this virus.
Let me just
say a little bit about Jonahs burial…
We lived in
Bundibugyo for 17 years and we attended dozens if not hundreds of burials. Jonah’s was unlike any other we ever
attended.
Since Jonah
died in Kampala, his body had to be transported back to Bundibuygo. That was done by the Doctors Without Borders
– Spain team. The district leadership
planned bury it with no ceremony, no attendants, not even his wife. We strongly
objected. We knew there was no danger to standing a few feet away and watching
the MSF team put the coffin into the ground. We drove Melen, the three oldest
girls, his sister Sophia, and his mother, to Bundibugyo Hospital. When we
arrived the other two staff were just being buried. I called the DDHS thinking someone from the
district should show the courtesy of attending the burial, and he and the LC5
came, as well as a handful of medical staff. We asked Melen what she wanted,
she only wanted to be sure that someone prayed. We circulated looking for
someone who was willing to sing, and thankfully found a Red Cross mobilizer who
led hymns while the coffin was unloaded. Again people tried to keep Jonah’s
family away, but there was no reason for that. Because Jonah’s body was
decontaminated and enclosed in Kampala, the infection control protocol for his
burial was less than for the two who died here. The team merely wore gloves,
and MSF allowed the girls and relatives to stand by the side without touching
anything. When the coffin had been lowered on ropes, Scott asked for a pause. He
took out a Bible and read. And they
stood at a distance. Quietly. While the MSF Burial team lowered the coffin
into the ground.
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By our
estimates only his youngest brother and his mother had any potential exposure,
touching him or cleaning up from his sickness. But the entire family was ostracized
as dangerous and put into quarantine for 21 days. It was harsh.
Jonah’s
wife did receive a small worker’s compensation lump sum from the government
since he died while doing government work, but inexplicably they published that
fact and the sum in the New Vision. This
was a horrible decision as every distant relative descended on Melen, trying to
vie for a piece of the pie. And Melen
was pregnant with their sixth child at the time of Jonah’s death. A child he would never meet. And it turned out to be their first boy, now
named for his father.
At the
graveside, as they lowered Jonah’s coffin into the ground I read
John 12:
But Jesus answered them, saying: The
hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and
he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone
serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If
anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
Jonah
fulfilled this description as well as anyone we have ever known, not loving his
life too much, being willing to die for the good of others.
I would
like to pause here for a moment before I move to my final points—to address the
issue of how we deal with such a tragedy.
How do we make sense of the death of a good man, one who we have poured
so much into, who has just finished six years of medical training who has come
back to serve his people, who is the father to five children. It makes no sense, humanly speaking. I will say two things:
First, We
cannot see the ways of God. God is
all-knowing and all-loving and all-powerful. We know these things from the ways
he has revealed Himself in history. But sometimes we cannot understand His
ways. We must accept that God is Mystery
–with a capital “M”. It will never make
sense to us – but we cannot see all of history in the same way that God can. Look at it this way. If you wanted to
understand the ocean, but you only had a cup of water from the ocean. You could say that it is salty, that it might
have some sand, and some microorganisms in it. But that cup of ocean water
could never reveal the depths of the ocean and the undersea world of creatures
and vegetation and beauty. In the same
way, we only see dimly now through a veil.
God is beyond our understanding…
Second, there
is some good that has risen from the death of Jonah…we established the Dr.
Jonah Kule Memorial Leadership Scholarship Fund to sponsor students in medicine
and other health-related education. We
have seen 6 doctors sponsored at Mbarara and KIU; in nursing at UCU; in lab
medicine at Mulago and Mengo; in anesthesia at Mulago.
Those
sponsored in medicine included Baluku Morris, Monday Julius, Katuramu Tadeo,
Peter Kisembo, Isaiah Kule, Birungi Fred.
And they are all bonded to 5 years of service in Bundibugyo (though it
seems unlikely at this time that the District will have the finances to hire
them all).
So, what
does this mean for us today?
How should
we then live?
We are here
today remembering and re-telling the story of the final days of Dr. Jonah
Kule. Is his life a model for us?
As medical
students, I used to presume that you were motivated by a sense of service and
calling. That there was some desire to
heal the sick, to comfort the dying, to help your fellow humans. These last few years though I’ve run into
more and more young doctors who are motivated only by money. I have a Kenyan colleague who seems to be
willing to do a Cesarean delivery on every woman possible to make as much money
as possible. There is a doctor in
Bundibugyo recently who has been doing unnecessary hysterectomies in order to
make as much money as possible.
I would
like to leave you today with one more verse from the Bible, Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is
good:
And what does the LORD require of
you
But to do justice
And to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God.
I would
implore you as medical students to reexamine the reasons why you entered
medicine. Of course, medicine is a sure meal ticket and potentially a lucrative
career. I’ve heard so many intellectual
justifications about why you DESERVE to be living comfortable and convenient
lives. You’ve worked hard. You’ve suffered. You’ve put yourself in harm’s way. You deserve to drive a nice car, own a big
house, wear the best clothes, and to send your kids to the best schools.
But let’s
look at this verse from the Book of the prophet Micah…
WHAT DOES
GOD REQUIRE OF YOU…
1 DO JUSTICE…God does not call us to
lives of convenience but to lives of justice.
The
Bible is full of evidence of God’s concern for justice:
Isaiah
58
Cry loudly…raise your voice…declare
to My people their transgression...on the day of your fast you find your
desire, and drive hard all your workers…Is this not the fast which I choose? To
loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the
oppressed go free? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the
homeless poor into the house?
If you remove the yoke from your
midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you give yourself
to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted then your light will rise
in darkness…You will be like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
And
I would like to make a distinction here between charity and justice. Charity is giving something to someone in
need. Caring for the poor. This is a good thing. But justice is doing something in which there
is a structural change in the system that oppresses the poor and those in need.
You
see corruption and deceit in your communities, in your hospital. People taking
money from patients for dressing changes and placement of IVs. For services that are declared free by the
government. I daresay that if we see it and don’t speak up then we are
complicit in promoting injustice. Injustice
is an oppression of the poor –who have no other resources to access private
care.
Jonah
stood up to injustice when he rolled up his sleeves and did the CS for the
woman on the table who had no money. He
stood up to the corruption, called it out, and did the just and right thing. He challenged the system of corruption and
publically condemned in it word and deed.
Doing
justice is doing the right thing.
What
is that for you today?
What
does that mean for you in your life?
How
can you be working for justice in an unjust world?
Does
that require some sacrifice in your life – of course, it does.
2. LOVE KINDNESS…This is about who we are as
people. How we treat each other.
Aristotle defines it as being "helpfulness towards
someone in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the
helper himself, but for that of the person helped.
Kindness is a comfort to those it touches. It makes their life easier, more pleasant.
Another way we can think about Kindness is generosity. Giving.
Some say it’s more blessed to give that receive. To live generously is to live with a spirit
of kindness. Always looking for
opportunities to bless other people.
Philippians 2:3 -
count others more significant that yourself…
There are so many organizations and movements in our culture
and in social media extolling the virtue of kindness…
The Kindness Boomerang, the LifeVestInside, Random Acts of
Kindness, Pay it Forward…
The common thread here is doing something for someone else
expecting nothing in return.
Usually these are small acts.
Jonah was a kind man – one who thought always of others
first. Of how he could serve, of how he
could help…
What
opportunities for showing kindness do you have in your life?
Are you touching others with unexpected,
unmerited kindnesses?
3. Walk Humbly with your God.
What does
that mean to walk Humbly with God?
To be
humble in the Bible means literally to ‘submit yourself to the humbling process
of God’
It means
you submit control to God. You have
faith that He is in control. That he is
great and we are not.
I remember
one time Jonah and I were traveling together.
It was early in our friendship.
He was still a Clinical Officer.
We were staying in a guest house together. We had a small room with two beds. I think we arrived late. We ate dinner and I came back and collapsed
into bed. Jonah took a shower. By the time he got back I was almost asleep. He said, “Scott did you pray? We need to pray
before we sleep.” I smiled and
nodded. He prayed, giving thanks for the
day, for our safe travel, for our accommodation and our meal. And asked that God would protect us through
the night and give us rest.”
Jonah was a
man who pursued justice, who practiced kindness, and who walked humbly with his
God.
He gave his
life serving others.
He is an
example and a hero to his family, his friends, to Uganda, and to the world.
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| Masika, little Jonah, Mbusa, Melen, and Biira |
