Lessons of Life

Copyright © 2011 by Lutufyo Witson Mwamakamba, MSc. HE, MD.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011921915

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-6176-4353-8

                   Softcover                                 978-1-6176-4355-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-6176-4354-5

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Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER I UNEXPECTED MOMENTS OF LIFE

CHAPTER II DECISIONS OF LIFE

CHAPTER III TEST OF FAITHFULNESS

CHAPTER IV IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS

CHAPTER V DAY ZERO

CHAPTER VI VALLEY OF DEATH

CHAPTER VII MIRACLES

CHAPTER VIII MESSAGES OF HOPE

CHAPTER IX SERVING

CHAPTER X SILENT FAREWELL

CHAPTER XI TILL WE MEET AGAIN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the grandchildren of Witson Mwakilembe Mwamakamba, who had no opportunity of sharing the joys with their grandfather.

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit of a child. The potential for greatness lives within each one of us.

—Wilma Rudolph

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Baraka Muganda, PhD

Vice President

Washington Adventist University Takoma Park

Maryland, United States of America

Helio da Silva, DDS

Dental Surgery Clinic, Cotia

São Paulo, Brazil

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Head of Diplomatic Missions

Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network

(FANRPAN) South Africa

Melissa Martinez Ebanks, MSc, HRM

Deputy Postmaster, General Operations

Cayman Islands

Mpoki M. Ulisubisya, MD

Fellow, Cardiothoracic Anesthesia

Senior Medical Specialist

Head of Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care

Muhimbili National Hospital—University of Dar es Salaam

Tanzania

Paola Zucchi, PhD, MD

Vice Chairman

Centro Paulista de Economia da Saude

Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil

Suzana Altikes Hazzan, MD

Member of Brazilian Association of Pediatrics

Coordinator of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Hospital Estadual Vila Alpina, Sao Paulo Brazil

for their constant support, motivations, and feedbacks thus making this memorable project possible.

There are men who struggle for a day and they are good.

There are men who struggle for a year and they are better.

There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still.

But there are those who struggle all their lives:

These are the indispensable ones.

—Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht

INTRODUCTION

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to a new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.

Flavia Weedn

LESSONS OF LIFE—AUTHORED by Lutufyo Witson Mwamakamba, MD, with special collaboration from Lusekelo Witson Mwamakamba, Lusubilo Witson Mwamakamba, Lufingo Witson Mwamakamba, and Lwijisyo Witson Mwamakamba—tells a story of a man, friend, and father by the name of Witson Mwakikembe Mwamakamba from a humble, insignificant childhood in the cold tea mountains of Southern Tanzania, who unleashed his potentials to make a significant positive difference to himself, his family, society, and those that came in contact with him around the globe through his journey of life.

His journey initiated from a polygamist and an atheist father who had no interest in education, coupled with hard labor during childhood to support his family, and when the opportunity arrived, he strived in academic performance, surpassing all challenges and obstacles, with the love of Jesus, his mentor and provider of all that he had. And in the final days, this incredible man would put up a brave fight against cancer and inspire everyone despite all the odds against him.

Witson Mwakilembe Mwamakamba seemed to always know what he wanted in life and pushed himself to the limits to achieve it. A story of personal confidence and faith in the One who miraculously guided his servant from birth to the end. A story of a servant’s faith that overcame adversities, that conquered fear and rose to every challenge with grace and dignity that came from the hand of the Almighty.

A witness to those on a journey that bears testament that no matter where you may come from, no matter how hard it may be, the Lord will grant his mercies. And in his mercy, you will have second chances—opportunities to make a difference to chart your own road and journey, thus make a difference in your life and those around you. For we are all born as symbiotic beings to contribute and make differences to the world in our own unique way, and that every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.

I

UNEXPECTED MOMENTS OF LIFE

AS AN INTENSIVE care neonatal physician,[1] my days are full of joy in the presence of a mystery of birth, incorporated with instinctive maternal love. Someone once said that when a baby is born, a new mother is also born. It is one of the best moments in a woman’s life after months of pregnancy wherein she experienced wonders of creation, no matter what the circumstances were. A moment anticipated with great anxiety, which culminates in celebration, transforming the hearts and minds of all those around. Amidst these special occasions, there are moments when one’s heart breaks apart. Moments when the little ones, due to prematurity, infections, congenital malformations, or other numerous reasons, have to go through a lot of pain. At such times, I ask myself, Why? Why must these defenseless, pure, and innocent little ones have to go through a lot of suffering? A difficult question to answer as a physician and Christian.

And as I ponder on life, I see that no one is free from all suffering. We all have situations, people, moments, places that when we recapitulate some, they still bring tears to our eyes. Life can be hard, cruel, and very painful. As Clive Staples Lewis, an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist stated, It is atheism’s most potent weapon against the Christian faith. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the wrong people get sick, hurt, and die young. I try to think that some good may come out of even the worst suffering, or that suffering seems to be a part of our human condition and has been since the beginning of time. And that while at times it can seem pointless or unjust, there are times when it can be a positive influence in our lives. According to Rev. Father Andrew of the Societas Doctrinae Christinae, cofounder of the first Franciscan order in the Anglican Church in mid-January 1894, If suffering went out of our life, courage, tenderness, pity, faith, patience and love in its divinity would go out of life, too. There are no specific answers, and God has not given one simple answer that will satisfy everyone, but his Word has given us all we need to know (2 Peter 1:3, 4). Being all-powerful and all-loving, he absolutely works all things for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). And in Revelation 21:4, he says there is coming a time when all sorrow, tears, pain, and death will pass away. And on that day, God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his children, and our sorrows will end forever.

It was a hot summer afternoon and I was on duty at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Escola Paulista de Medicina, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. An intensive care catering to patients in monitored incubators lined one after another from 400 grams to 3500 grams, known more by their diagnosis rather than names, with intravenous, oral, nasal, and urethral catheters, blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, heart leads on their tiny chests, the sounds of alarms and beepers all over, monitors of various functions, automatic sensor-controlled doors, and an army of uniformed physicians, nurses, physical therapists, etc., caring for these tiny ones in little rooms with controlled temperature, humidity, lighting, and air, resembling more like a high-tech manufacturing plant. On the other side, anxious and desperate parents waiting on the outcomes of their little loved ones. No matter how we try to humanize the intensive care unit, it always leaves some marks in the hearts of the little ones, family members, and those who care for them.

I had finished evaluating all the critical patients when my cell phone rang, and on the other side was my younger brother Lusekelo Witson Mwamakamba from Nairobi, Kenya, informing me that our father, Witson Mwakilembe Mwamakamba, had an accident in Tanzania and that he was being treated at a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. The apparent cause of the accident was due to transient loss of memories and confusion associated with an abrupt form of a severe headache with bout of vomiting. At first it seemed that it was some kind of food contamination. But as his condition deteriorated, it was evident that there was something else serious. A few minutes before the fatal incidence on daylight, my mother (Judith Mwamakamba), who was the only passenger, observed that as Witson drove on the busy two-way highway that links Tanzania and Kenya, he would take the car with an inclination to the incoming vehicles. The trucks would flush their high beam lights. Later on, he would crash the car on the side rails of the highway, get a flat tire without major injuries. He then turned to my mother and smiled, with a look that was evident that he did not know what really had happened or was happening, saved by a miracle from an accident that would have taken the lives of both of them. Looking back, it is evident that he had impairment of the most important skills of driving: psychomotor skills from coordination to balance, loss of peripheral vision and acuity, perception, steering or tracking, information processing, division of attention of maintaining the vehicle in proper direction, and analyzing the signals around. My father had been driving with the skills of a drunk driver, but had emerged with nothing more than a flat tire.

After the initial exams, a computerized tomography (CT) scan and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), it was confirmed the presence of a mass on the frontal region of the head associated with a lot of brain edema, a tumor. My brother immediately e-mailed me the images. The memory of visualizing the MRI on the wide computer screen is as fresh as if it were yesterday. I was in shock, confused with a lot going on in my head. How? Why? When? What now? As a physician, I contemplated the many complications, possible outcomes, and factors involved in the treatment of a patient with a brain tumor. This was partially due to my training that predisposed me to focus on all the unbearable possibilities rather than on the positive side of the disease. I slept that night wishing that it was a nightmare and that the next day I would wake up and everything will be back to normal. But as once said, When you are in trouble and think that you are the bottom, always remember that you are not there yet, for things can get even worse.

In the morning when I woke up, everything was just the same as the day before, but nothing was normal as it should have been. I gathered the images and case notes and headed to the Neurosurgery Department, which had its weekly sessions to discuss complicated cases. I had sat many times in these meetings, digging deep into diagnosis of patients, and it never occurred to me that one day I would be sitting to discuss a case of a loved one, my father. I presented the case. The images projected onto the familiar screen. Cold MRI images magnified the silence. Soft sighs, gentle nods, and the masked deceptive expression on the faces of the older, experienced neurosurgeons scared my