A SCHEDULED operation for jailed former Minister of Finance Katele Kalumba at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) has failed to take off.
The Daily Nation has been briefed that Dr Kalumba was shcduled to undergo an operation to have a pin which was inserted in his femur removed but that the operation was reportedly frustrated.
Reports received confirms the fact that Dr Kalumba’s operation did not go as planned and that a team of doctors were frustrated in their attempt to remove a pin inserted in the femur after a shrapnel hit Dr Katele during an operation on lower Kafue in 1978.
Sources have disclosed that Dr Kalumba is now requiring a walker as he has been unable to walk unaided.
More operations are said to be scheduled which are expected to remove multiple hernias from the former Finance Minister in the MMD government.
The sources said an MRI had been recommended for both the heart and spine because Dr Kalumba was a known cardiac patient for which he was diagnosed in 2009 at Appolo Hospital in Hyderabad in India.
Last year Dr Kalumba was diagnosed with severe spondylitis, which diagnosed at Maina Soko Military Hospital and that both the heart and the spine required expensive daily medication.
“With the failed operation, Dr Katele’s health has deteriorated. Our appeal to President Hakainde Hichilema is to consider his situation and exercise compassion. Dr Katele’s crime was in the course of national duty to reach HIPC Decision Point for $7bn debt cancellation and secure $78n British grant for Nkana smelter. These objectives were achieved,” the source said.
