It qualifies to be called the curious case of a missing arm. In life, some people are haunted by their past mistakes and wasted opportunities. A few others drift through their lives, tortured by ghosts of reckless deeds from their youthful days. However, for Mr. David Sanguli, 45, of Singila Majengo village in Mwatate, his haunting comes from the most unlikely source: a severed right arm he believes lies abandoned in a cold freezer at Wesu Hospital Mortuary in Wundanyi sub-county for the past 16 years.
Though not superstitious, his heart remains troubled. He is daily tormented by the angry ghost of a limb he lost to a sisal-cutting machine in a grisly accident at Teita Sisal Estate in Mwatate in May 2007. At night, the hand terrorises his dreams. He suffers from recurrent nightmares caused by a limb that calls out to him. He insists his suffering will only end when he gets custody of his arm. He intends to give it a proper burial to pacify the wrath of this livid limb.
“My arm has tortured me for many years. All I want is to get it back so that I can bury it with dignity and honour. Is that too much to ask for?” asks the downcast father.
The bizarre chronicles of this lost limb date back over 16 years. On that fateful evening in May 2007, he was feeding some sisal leaves to the machine in the brush room when tragedy struck. The machine grabbed his hand and proceeded to shred flesh, crush bones, and chop gristle.
First came shock, as his body went instantly numb. A split second later, tidal waves of excruciating agony rippled through him, and he screamed. His wild yells brought other workers rushing to the room, but the sight of blood and gore from his mangled arm paralysed them. It took a plucky worker several seconds before he broke through his paralysis and rushed to switch off the power from the main switch.
By this time, it was too late. His right hand was gone.
“The pain was indescribable. My colleagues rushed me to the clinic to stop the bleeding,” recalls the father of five.
The medics applied a tourniquet to halt the excessive bleeding, but the injury was too severe and required specialised treatment at Moi County Referral Hospital in Voi. By the time he arrived at the larger facility, Mr. Sanfuli was weak from loss of blood, feverish, delirious, and drifting in and out of consciousness.
While receiving treatment, Mr. Sanguli claims that a rogue company official attempted to force him to sign some strange documents. This, he says, was an attempt to shield his employer from being sued over negligence and absolve him of any responsibility for the accident.
“Though suffering and in great pain, I sensed something wrong. I screamed. The man fled,” he recalls.
When his colleagues visited him, they told him his limb had been retrieved and had been taken to Wesu Hospital Mortuary by the police. While Mr. Sanguli pursued the company for compensation, he paid little attention to his limb.
It was not until April 2008 that he got a police letter that allowed him to go collect his arm. He was handed a mortuary bill of Sh106,000.
A report from Wesu Hospital Mortuary dated April 30, 2008, indicates the arm had been preserved for 355 days. There was also an additional body processing fee of Sh 200.
“How can preserving a mere hand cost so much? It is a hand!” charges Sanguli.
In his condition, he could not work to raise the required money. His attempts to go see his arm were thwarted by hospital officials, who demanded he clear the outstanding fee. His pleas to have the bill waived were also ignored.
He says he is traumatised by the thought of a part of him lying dead in a mortuary while the rest of him is intact, alive, and breathing.
“One piece of me is lying in a mortuary, yet the rest are with me. I want that missing bit back for a proper burial,” he says.
The current bill might have accumulated to over one million shillings. Still, he remains hopeful of being reunited with his beloved limb. However, a grim possibility exists that his limb was long ago disposed of by the facility. The Public Health Act, Cap. 242, orders unclaimed bodies to be removed from the mortuary after fourteen days for disposal with permission from the courts.
County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Health Services Gifton Mkaya says it’s an old case that he handled in 2013. He states there are no records to back up claims of a hand preserved at Wesu Hospital Mortuary. Without any documentation, it is impossible for the government to act. He also wonders how anyone can leave his arm in a mortuary for 16 years.
“This is an old case. There are no records to support his claims, and hence the government could not take action,” he says.
Mr. Sanguli remains adamant.
“You cannot say my arm is unclaimed. I am the owner. It is a part of me. It was the huge bill that the hospital demanded that made it impossible for me to take it back. I want my limb back,” he insists.
By Wagema Mwangi
