The Reverend Gets Sick

9th May, 2011 was a sad day for the Chienda family and the Nkhoma Synod of the CCAP owing to the demise of the Rev Yeremiah Chienda, who had served three terms as General Secretary of the Synod. He had been taken ill during the months of February and March and was treated as an out patient at Mtengowanthenga and Dyan Luke hospitals, in Dowa and Lilongwe districts, resectively. Both facilities lay within 15 kilometres from Lumbadzi, where the deceased used to live.

Getting very little relief from the treatment obtained at these reputable hospitals, we, his children, took him to the premier health facility in Malawi, Mwaiwathu Hospital in Blantyre. His first appointment was on 2nd April, 2011. He was given medication that was meant to help him discard some fluids from his body, which had apparently built up as a result of pulmonary edema, a sign of a minor heart failure. It was the fluids that were causing so much discomfort, according to the Doctor.

During a check up visit on 11th April, the Doctor expressed his happiness at the fact that the Reverend had lost 4 kg in body weight, which translated to a loss of 4 litres of water. He was to continue on the same medication pending a further check up at the end of May.

Following the 11 April check up, Rev Chienda and Mrs Chienda decided to leave for Lilongwe on 13th April, to come back for the scheduled check up at the end of May. However, on the afternoon of 12th April, and from nowhere, he started vomiting. There was not much by way of the actual vomit but the vomiting activity was so intense it left him significantly weakened. Our initial suspicion was that he had malaria, so we took him to Chitawira Private Hospital. He tested negative for malaria, but was nevertheless given antimalarial drugs along with some antibiotic, as the white blood cell count was high.

The following day, he did not move around much, spending most of the day in his bedroom. My wife, Elubie, was travelling to Lilongwe on business the following morning. Initially the parents indicated that they would join her but on learning that she was leaving very early to meet an 8:30 am appointment, they changed their mind and opted to leave the following day by coach.

On Thursday morning, 14th April, I left home for the office around 7:00 am while the Revered was being led to the bathroom. Having forgotten some important documents at home, I decided to go back to pick them up. While I was on my way home, my elder sister, Mercy, called me to advise that she and my other sister, Gladys, were at my home and that dad was so weak he was unable to stand or walk. I rushed home and found him seated on the sofa in the sitting room but unable to respond to any stimulus. With the help of my mum and my elder son, Jeremiah, we picked up and placed him in Gladys' car to rush him to hospital. I will in the next entry describe what ensued at Mwaiwathu Hospital, where he was hospitalised for close to a month.