adminFreedom Mutanda
On February 5 2015, Mr James Chigugudhlo (50), deputy head at Mwacheta Secondary School and an elder at the local Seventh Day Adventist Church, Kondo Branch, bade farewell to his wife, Rujeko Otiliah Chigugudhlo, a teacher at Kondo School, and promised to come back with goodies when he returned from Chipinge as he went to the bus stop and waited for a commuter omnibus that would take him to Chipinge on a school errant as he normally did.
Alas, barely five kilometres from the station where he boarded the commuter omnibus, the vehicle veered off the road after a rear tyre burst and rolled several times resulting in the death of eight passengers and a injuries to a number of people.
Chigugudhlo was one of the severely injured passengers who had to be rushed to hospital; he ended up in the intensive care unit at a Harare hospital under the watchful eyes of specialists.
The immediate response to his arrival at the hospital was to amputate his legs; up to now, he can’t talk; his wife, Otiliah Rujeko, is by his side.
He sustained head injuries with intrecerebrally haematoma, right chest tension pnuemothorax, multiple rib fractures, mangled compound fractures in both feet, blunt abdominal trauma.
He is in the intensive care unit on life support on ventilator and he is managed by specialist doctors.
Chigugudhlo needs $20 000 for paying hospital bills and specialist doctors. He is going to be hospitalised for some time and the service provider needs payment in cash.
He joined the teaching profession in 1992 and rose through the ranks until he was promoted to be a deputy head at Mwacheta School.
He is a family man with four children.
Almost a month after the crash, Chigugudhlo is in deep trouble.
His plight is compounded by news that his medical aid allocation has been exhausted and he has been left at the deep end of the ocean and made to swim against the tide.
His medical aid PSMAS has abandoned him in his darkest hour.
In fact, it is his wife and family who now have the arduous task of looking for money for their loved one to get to the next level in his recuperative drive — high dependence unit — for him to fully recover.
With this in mind, one cannot fail to ask how the insurance industry is working when commuter omnibus owners forget about the victims as soon as the horrible accident would have receded in people’s collective memories.
Here is a bread winner who may not be able to come back to work and there seems to be a conspiracy between forces that we don’t know to make Chigugudhlo’s life one long summer of misery.
Bed ridden, Chigugudhlo is a bitter man; he can’t talk about his needs because he can’t talk owing to the ghastly crash.
For now, church spokesperson Mr Moffat Sigauke, of Clearwater Secondary School, is appealing to people from all walks of life to contribute in cash or kind towards servicing the required money for the operation that is required which amounts to about $20 000.
He particularly appeals to people’s sense of love and African humanism saying this is not the time to bicker and engage in fist fights over who was wrong when the accident occurred.
“I appeal to all Zimbabweans within and without our borders to find it in their hearts to help the family that is at its weakest financially and emotionally through cash and kind.
“Could other SDA’s worldwide organisation of brothers and sisters come in and help a dear brother.
Christians and non-Christians alike can chip in in many forms for James to get better.
“He is a strong man and with God’s divine guidance, we expect the best from these donations.’’
Rujeko, Chigugudhlo’s wife, is devastated. She prays that her husband overcomes the health predicament .
“I can’t believe this is happening to me. We were one happy family before the tragedy, but Satan had other ideas.
“There is no way God will forsake us and the whole family is one in prayer.
“However, we are appealing to the generality of Zimbabweans to assist us in our endeavors to raise the sum required for my husband,” she said as she wiped a tear.
Observers are scathing in their attacks on the so-called ‘‘kombi’’ owners and the medical aid societies.
They believe that the profit syndrome is hampering efforts to take care of those who survive accidents.
The medical aid company has abandoned the man at a time he needs them most.
The Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) says Chigugudhlo has exhausted his annual allocation.
It could be true, but the man is in pain and lies helplessly in the ICU; he will pay them and all that is needed is for the management to empathise with the situation Chigugudhlo finds himself in.
Noel Shava, a teacher in Botswana who used to be a workmate of Chigugudhlo at Kondo some years back, said: “It is indeed sad that PSMAS has decided to do this at a time he is battling for his life in hospital.
“Be that as it may, let all progressive individuals in Zimbabwe and indeed throughout the world be involved in the fund-raising venture for good old James.
“In all this, where are the teachers’ unions?
“One of their members needs them and they ought to come like knights in shining armour.”
The education fraternity is still in shock about what happened.
Kondo SDA regularly holds prayers for the speedy recovery of Chigugudhlo who has served the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education for close to three decades.
Those who wish to extend help in any form, can contact Rutendo Otiliah Chigugudhlo at the following numbers: 0774635740 or Moffat Sigauke 0772520826.
Online Reporter