Hard work, dedication and prayers from their loving mother helped siblings, Drs Gcinile Mngoma and Mlungisi Mngoma graduate together at UKZN.
Gcinile was awarded a Master of Medicine degree in Anaesthetics while Mlungisi qualified as a Medical doctor.
‘We are very proud of our respective accomplishments, and it is really a wonderful coincidence that we got to graduate on the very same day,’ said Gcinile, currently a specialist anaesthesiologist in private practice. ‘As his big sister, I am especially proud of Mlungisi, having watched him progress through Medical School and gain his independence from me as someone who has walked the path. He was determined to forge his way and rarely asked for help. I think the happiest person though is our mother – she has been extremely blessed to experience this in her lifetime.’
Gcinile said they grew up helping to raise cattle in the rural community of Umzumbe on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast where there was limited resources. ‘A mobile clinic came once a month but there were no telephonic services and the area had a poor road infrastructure. This meant that in the rainy seasons, the roads and the bridges would get damaged, often resulting in the mobile clinic being unable to reach our community until the roads were repaired. The community had to find ways and means to transport an injured or critically ill person more than 30km to the nearest clinic or hospital for help. A lot of preventable deaths occurred and I knew that had to change.’
Supervised by Professor Timothy Hardcastle and Dr Kim de Vasconcellos, Gcinile’s Master of Medicine research was the first of its kind in South Africa conducted at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital’s intensive care unit and was a reminder for everyday practitioners, even at primary healthcare level, about the care that needs to be taken when administering antiretroviral (ARV) drugs as they influence the metabolism of other drugs, scientifically known as pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Gcinile said mal-administered drug-to-drug interactions could result in consequences such as drug toxicity, sub-therapeutic effects, and the potential of ARV drug resistance.
With nearly a decade age gap between them, she remembered growing up with her brother – the only boy in the family – who would jump for joy when he saw his sisters returning home from herding cattle. He reacted the same when he saw them arriving home from school. ‘He eventually grew up enough to herd cattle himself,’ she chuckled.
Said Mlungisi on graduating: ‘It was unbelievable at first. I kept checking if I was not dreaming. Eventually, I calmed down and began to feel like a doctor.’ He is currently serving his internship rotation at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in the Eastern Cape.
‘When my sister was still in Medical School, she studied with me when she came home during vacs. She would teach me anatomy randomly and discuss physiology,’ said Mlungisi. ‘At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about. I just enjoyed spending time with her. As I grew older, I became more and more interested in Medicine and Gcinile played a vital role in igniting that passion in me.’
Mlungisi thanked his family, friends and UKZN’s Student Support Services team for supporting him through the MBChB programme.
Gcinile loves singing and watching sitcoms while her brother enjoys martial arts, outdoor sporting activities and hopes to progress to specialising in orthopaedics.
Words: Lunga Memela
Photograph: Sethu Dlamini