NAKURU, KENYA: A family from Subukia in Nakuru County is in tussle with the Rift Provincial General Hospital Nakuru on what is turning out to be negligence from the staff and the hospital’s management.
This emerged after an elderly patient was declared dead on arrival to the facility on Tuesday for the hospital to recant it and but on Wednesday at 11am declare her dead.
Relatives said a doctor at Provincial General Hospital declared that Hannah Wanjiru Chege,78, be placed at a temporary room awaiting transfer to the hospital mortuary on Tuesday when she was taken to the hospital claiming she had died while on way to hospital. She had complained of acute headache.
Her granddaughter, Faith Wambui, who was with her and other family members at the hospital were shocked after the doctor informed them that she had passed on. “She was examined by a doctor who proceeded and directed us to get a police abstract claiming she had died before she reached the hospital,” she said.
Shocked and in grieve, Wambui together with her uncle John Nduati went to the Railway Police Station, Nakuru where they obtained an abstract and went back to the hospital.
On arrival at the hospital they met mortuary attendants who were ready to move the body to the morgue for preservation but they noticed she was breathing and a doctor was called in to check after which she was declared she was still alive.
“I was surprised when I decided to see my grandmother for the last time when I saw her breathing and moving her fingers and a doctor was called in who conducted some checks and said she was still alive,” said Wambui.
She said the doctor took the abstract they had come with from the police and tore it after realizing his mistake.
“The doctor took the abstract from us immediately after realizing his mistake and tore it into pieces and became rude to us when we insisted we wanted to go and cancel our earlier report to the police,” she alleged.
She said the doctor gave them his cell phone number and instructed the family to move back and report the developments to the police in charge of the Railway to call so as to explain the circumstances with the view to cancel the death abstract.
The family is now accusing the hospital and the doctor who identified himself as Ben of negligence and causing embarrassment and agony to the family. The news of the woman’s death had already spread.
“We had even called our relatives who are abroad to let them know of the death of our granny only to realize later that she was still alive. That was negligence on the part of the doctor and he should be apprehended,” said Nduati. He said there could be such cases which have gone unreported and ailing patients taken to the mortuary while still alive.
But the family was to later receive shocking news as they prepared to move their grandmother for a scan in a private facility in town when the nursing officer told them on Wednesday mid-morning that she had died.
Senior nursing officer Jeniffer Mathenge said the woman was put in oxygen and admitted immediately after she was discovered to be a live but passed on on Wednesday mid-morning as relatives were preparing to take her for a private
Interestingly, Dr John Murimi the medical superintendent learned about the incident from the press and summoned his team who confessed about the incident in front of the press.
They family is now accusing the hospital of taking too much time before clearing her for the x-ray alleging that they had already paid Sh8, 000 for the ambulance.
“Where we have human beings errors do occur and this is one of them,” said the nurse.
Source-standardmedia.co.ke
Controversy as Patient ‘Dies, Resurrects, Then Dies’ in Nakuru
Controversy as Patient ‘Dies, Resurrects, Then Dies’ in Nakuru
