HBO has released Savior Complex, a three-part docuseries on Renée Bach, a Christian missionary who started a charity in Uganda and practiced medicine without a license, which resulted in the death of over 100 children.
Savior Complex traces Bach’s story, exploring how a high school graduate with no formal medical training established a charity, “Serving His Children” in 2009. At the time, Bach said she was “called by God” to start a clinic to help treat malnourished children. However, the clinic lacked any licensed medical professionals for years after it got started. Eyewitness accounts reveal that Bach took on responsibilities that extended far beyond her qualifications, administering IVs, prescribing medication and, shockingly, performing a blood transfusion on at least one occasion. Eventually, Bach was accused of practicing medicine without a license and was hit with a lawsuit filed by two Ugandan mothers whose children had died under her care. The case eventually reached a settlement in 2020.
Since the settlement, Bach has been living in the US and rarely spoken on the topic, until now.
“She was living back here in the US, not facing any criminal charges, just a civil case in Uganda,” said filmmaker Jackie Jesko. “But it really wasn’t a very big news story, and there seemed to be a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle.”
In the documentary, Jesko interviews Bach and known associates about what really transpired and what impact the clinic has had on the region. The series also goes deeper, exploring the complexities of race, religion, money and global politics that are woven into this story.
“This is an extremely difficult story, super controversial,” Jesko said. “We did an extremely thorough investigation into this… A big part of my goal in making this was to draw attention to it in a way that I thought my fellow Americans could understand and learn from, when of course I’ve not lived the Ugandan perspective.”
Savior Complex is now playing on HBO and Max.
