Patient jumps off 8th floor of Kiruddu hospital, ends his life

A regular patient of dialysis at Kiruddu Hospital reportedly committed suicide, Thursday evening, after jumping from the 8th floor of the hospital where he was in a wheelchair.

Police and the Ministry of Health confirmed the incident saying that the patient, now deceased jumped off the building at around 8:00pm on Thursday evening and died instantly.

The deceased was identified by Police as Musinzi Faustine, 56 years old and a resident of Gomba Kisozi.

Officials at Kiruddu hospital said that Musinzi has been a patient at the hospital for the past three weeks.

According to Emmanuel Ainebyoona, a Senior Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Health, Musinzi was admitted with in a critical condition, having missed some dialysis sessions before the admission.

"According to the dialysis team, he was admitted with breathlessness, having missed some dialysis sessions before admission. He also had a pneumonia that health workers managed, and he had improved. He was waiting for the morning dialysis session," Ainebyoona said in part.

This now adds to the rising cases of suicide among Ugandans which has raised concerns about the state of mental health in the country and whether enough is being done to deal with the two issues.