KAMPALA-UGANDA/NEWSDAY: Doctors in the United States ( US) have concluded Parliament speaker Jacob Oulanya is suffering from a cancer that has now spread to other organs of his body.
This situation of the cancer is known as stage four. Stage 4 cancer is also sometimes known as metastatic cancer. At this stage the cancer has spread from its origin to distant parts of the body.
“This stage may be diagnosed years after the initial cancer diagnosis and/or after the primary cancer has been treated or removed,”an expert diagnostic medic offered to Newsday.
Oulanya’s cancer is said to be near the colon. Earlier while in Uganda and other overseas specialised hospitals, Oulanya had been reportedly diagnosed of colorectal cancer.
A source in the United States said Mr Oulanya’s medical team is comprised of seven doctors.
He was flown to the US using a Uganda Airlines chartered Airbus Neon, capable on one flight to carry nearly 252 passengers. The use of the aircraft has caused uproar and raised questions over how Ugandan tax payers lose money.
The A330-800 has a direct operating cost of $15k per hour. A round trip of of Mr. Oulanya from Entebe through Iceland to Seattle where he landed and back home will last 36 hours in the air.
On that metric alone the 36hr round trip will cost $540k. Crew costs, navigation and parking charges are relative. It is likely the plane will be waiting for him until he is healed or departs, and the tax payer could easily inch towards $600k-650k.
Even at an exorbitant $10k per hour, a one way air ambulance charter based on a smaller platform like a Cessna citation could come in at a max of $170. The return trip could set you back $15k business class or $30k with a personal assistant since it is assumed the patient would be fit to travel by commercial flight. The Gulfstream would also be cheaper because it has a direct operating cost of just about $4500 per hour.
Is it poison mutating?
In June 2021 soon after taking over from Rebecca Kadaga as speaker Oulanya went ill and disappeared from public eye for a while.
Tensions ran high within the precincts of parliament after information leaked that a special security team was probing Speaker Jacob Oulanyah’s last 48 hours before his health abruptly deteriorated in June, prompting an emergency medical evacuation to the UK.
According to Observer news site quoting State House sources in June, President Museveni had ordered a specialized security team to investigate the sudden slump in Oulanyah’s health a few days after assuming office.
The sources indicated the president was concerned Oulanyah could have been poisoned after medical reports from the UK, where he was rushed on June 22, turned out inconclusive.
“The report ruled out Covid-19 as it was earlier alleged in some circles. Oulanyah’s problem started with stomach complications, then vomiting before he got breathing problems,” said a source familiar with the matter.
Oulanyah underwent full toxicology find out whether indeed something was planted in his food or drink and the president was doing his own investigation using specialists from police counter terrorism unit, Special Forces Command (SFC) and Internal Security Organisation (ISO) is analyzing CCTV footage at parliament and every place Oulanyah visited between June 19 and June 22 for leads into the matter.
A medical expert intimated that often a time, poisoned victims get signs similar to those of cancers.
It now remains in the hands of the US doctors to confirm what exactly happened to Mr. Oulanya.
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