Dr Emannuel M Taban Pulmonologist

Born in a tiny village in South Sudan, Emmanuel Taban was one of five siblings raised by a single mother. At 14 he was arrested by the Military for being a rebel-spy, incarcerated, tortured and sent off to Khartoum. He fled to Eritrea, where he was again imprisoned. Upon his release, he decided to walk nearly 3000km to an uncle in Nairobi, Kenya, but he wasn’t welcomed – so, inspired by the “made in South Africa” printing on a cola can, he travelled another 3000 km through East Africa on his own and eventually into South Africa. Carte Blanche celebrates a life of epic grit and imagination – of a young refugee who became a leading pulmonologist who is saving the lives of critically-ill COVID-19 ventilator patients with his novel use of therapeutic bronchoscopies.