Africa-Press – Uganda. We built the most advanced baby incubator in the world. They evaluate and ask those [other] countries if they have something better than that [our baby incubator] and if they don’t have, then you score a win against them,” Christopher Nsamba told this publication in September last year after scooping a global recognition for his incubator that handles 10 premature babies at once.
Nsamba, 37, who had just completed manufacturing a bigger incubator to save the lives of premature babies, died at a hospital in Kampala on Sunday at 8pm. He was taken there after his health condition deteriorated while at his home in Ntinda, Kampala.
“As a family, it is very sad that we lost him. He passed on after two days of feeling unwell. The doctor told us that his sugar levels were too high and they couldn’t bring them back to normal,” his brother, Mr Martin Katamba, said yesterday.
The innovator, whose incubator has saved the lives of hundreds of babies in Mukono and Kawempe hospitals, will be buried at his ancestral home in Bulamba, Luweero District, on Friday.
Mr Katamba remembers Nsamba as being reserved and having a heart for people.
“If you were his friend, you remained so. He was a man of his word. We grew up together. He used to be very innovative,” he narrated.
“They were always fighting with the sister. Whenever you bought something like a toy or doll, he would tear it apart to see what was inside. We didn’t know what he was up to,” he added.
Ms Fridah Namakula, a family member, said Nsamba had a natural attraction to electronics.
“Nsamba didn’t go far with his studies but he was interested in wiring since childhood. His sister used to have a car and whenever there was a problem, he would repair it,” she said.
Ms Namakula said Nsamba studied up to Primary Seven but started learning wiring on his own and in a garage in Kampala.
“There is a sister called Joan who was in the US who asked to help him [Nsamba] to develop his skills. When he went to the US, he was taken for training,” she said.
Mr Katamba, who also lives in the US, said while in America, Nsamba refined his skills in innovative technology.
“When he came to the United States (time unspecified), he learnt how to work hard. He was in the USA for around four years. It was from there that he joined the USA army,” he said.
“He went to the school of technology, where he learnt innovative technologies. When he returned, he started using the information he got. He came back home because it was his personal choice,” he added.
According to Mr Katamba, Nsamba quit the army because he wanted independence.
“If you are in the army, you are controlled. They give you two years and after that, you sign a contract [that bars you from deserting]. I think he decided to get as much knowledge as he could and return home to make the best use of it,” he said.
Ms Namakula said when Nsamba returned, he started doing a number of things, including working on a drone and eventually the baby incubator.
“He took interest in incubators because he went to the hospital and saw a strong need. He would spend most of the time on the Internet learning how to come up with different innovations,” she said.
Mr Katamba said Nsamba had children and a wife.
Mr Stephen Mugarura, a police criminal investigator, who was a close friend of the deceased, said Nsamba was a big inspiration to the country. “I have known Nsamba for eight years. I was attracted to his charming character and his intelligence,” Mr Mugarura said.
He said when he first met him, he was developing several innovations.
“He showed me some innovations to do with drone technology. By then, they were not common here.Some of the other things he had come up with were hard to believe that he had made them here,” Mr Mugarura said.
“By then, he had come up with an incubator that could hold one baby. He took me through the functionality of the machine and I was amazed,” he added.
Nsamba was the chief executive officer of the African Space Research Programme. Mr Mugarura said Nsamba invested few resources into his innovation but later, key partners started taking interest in his work.
“At one time, officials from the Ministry of Health and others from State House appreciated his work and through their interaction, some of his machines were deployed to Mukono and Kawempe hospital,” he said added.
Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, has been one of Nsamba’s supporters. Nsamba won the heroes in health award in 2021 for his innovation.
Mr Alex Namala, the principal health officer at Mukono Hospital, said Nsamba’s machine have saved more than 500 premature babies in the facility.
Dr Idris Mubiru, a paediatrician at Kawempe Hospital, said the incubator was outstanding.
His global award-winning incubator handles 10 babies at once, higher than the conventional incubators imported from abroad that are usually made to handle only one baby.
“It has something that monitors the baby’s heart rate and the way the baby is breathing, and it gives a favourable environment. You can modify it to make the baby warm or cold,” he said.
Last year, Nsamba told this publication that the incubator monitors the babies and cleans the air around them to safeguard them from airborne diseases.
Mr Mugarura said Nsamba planted a seed of innovation that will never die. “He showed us that it doesn’t need to be a particular colour of the skin to come up with some innovations,” he said.
What they say
Impressed. “His machines are efficient. I saw how he was getting local materials, framing, welding them here, moulding and wiring the motherboard, and the outcome was amazing. When other people look at the finished product, they say it was imported, they can’t imagine such things can be manufactured here,” Stephen Mugarura, close friend of the deceased
Latest innovation.
“He came up with a bigger incubator that could accommodate 30 babies. By the time he died, Nsamba was working on an incubator that could be installed in the ambulance as a premature is brought to the hospital,” Fridah Namakula, family member
Blow to health
.“Each cabinet of the machine (incubator) has its own oxygen supply and it has blue lights, which are essential to support premature babies. So the machine was carefully designed. His death is very painful in the care of our babies,”Dr Idris Mubiru, paediatrician at Kawempe Hospital.
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