Obituary: Gideon Wurube Kara
South Sudan has lost a senior and longtime anaesthesia medical assistant who was working at Juba Teaching Hospital (JTH), Mr Gideon Wurube Kara died on 26th January 2024 in Juba, South Sudan. Mr Kara was born in Kajokeji on 1st January 1955, to Peter Kara Waran (father) of the Saburi clan, Lejo Boma, Kangapo 1 Payam, in Kajokeji County, and Ludia Poni Dilla (mother) of the Porongo clan, Lemi Boma, Kangapo 1 Payam, in Kajokeji County. He was married to Jesilen Juru Elioba Abale.
Mr Kara started his education in 1962 at Leikor Primary School, Kajokeji. His father did not approve of advancing his education, but due to his determination to study, he escaped with his sister to Uganda where they continued with their education at Lepori Junior Intermediate School, Uganda, from 1967 to 1970.
After working for several years in various positions in South Sudan, Mr Kara started nursing training at the Technical Nursing Secondary at JTH in Juba in 1989. Mr Kara travelled to Khartoum to study anaesthesia from 1997 to 1999, from where he graduated as an Anaesthesia Medical Assistant. He returned to Juba to work at the JTH in 2008 and, until the time of his death, had been the Assistant Director of anaesthesia since 2015.
Mr Kara had been described in different fora by many doctors who served with him in the theatre as “a truly humble soul who devoted his life to helping and serving patients at JTH.”
He was featured on the cover of the SSMJ Vol 5 No 2 for May 2012 in the discussion of safe caesarean section in which anaesthesia is a crucial component.
He will surely be missed by all who knew and loved him.
Mr Kara died from complications of heart failure. He is survived by eight children: five boys (one had died) and three daughters, and several grandchildren.
