Kottana Chidyaonga
The Medical Council of Malawi (MCM) has suspended Dr Ruth Chimutu for three months after the council found her guilty of negligence for allegedly administering the drug that led to the death of 23-year-old Kottana Chidyaonga in 2020.
The Council’s assistant registrar Richard Ndovie has confirmed the suspension.
Ndovie said Chimutu will undergo remedial orientation in the Accident and Emergency Department during the suspension period at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.
Chimutu, according to MCM, mistakenly administered veruconium bromide to Chidyaonga in January, 2020 after Chidyaonga was taken to Poly Care Clinic for a snake bite.
The Council has established that it was the veruconium bromide that led to Kottana’s death on 4 January, 2020.
Yesterday, the council also revealed that it had resolved to write a warning to Pathologist Charles Dzamalala who conducted postmortem on Chidyaonga’s body and concluded that Chidyaonga died due to termic poison.
Dzamalala has since said he will appeal against the ruling.
His postmortem, which was challenged by another pathologist Dr Steve Kamiza, led to the arrest of Kottana’s boyfriend Timothy Mtilosanje as well as Ekari Chaweza, Gilbert Kamaliza and Diana Bhagwanji.
In August, 2020, High Court Judge Thomson Ligowe acquitted the four saying the state had failed to prove that they murdered Chidyaonga.
Speaking through his lawyer yesterday, Mtilosanje said he will sue the state and the medical practitioner over the arrest.
Pathologist Dzamalala found guilty for concluding that Kottana died of poison
