A private hospital in Nyali constituency is accused of medical negligence that led to the untimely death of a patient under their care.
Pascaline Nyambeya, daughter of the deceased, says that her mother, Sisirya John was misdiagnosed by the hospital in her 59-day stay.
After the death of the 78-year-old patient, the hospital declined to discharge the body until the medical bill was cleared but civil societies intervened and the body was released.
The family hired a private pathologist who conducted a postmortem on Saturday under the watch of officials from the Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI) organization and DCI officers at a funeral home.
“I urge the government to take action by investigating this hospital because today is the first time I’ve known my mum had cancer but was being treated for other ailments,” said Nyambeya.
“When we went to the hospital, they said it was a stroke but she got complications and was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). They started saying it was kidney failure, aspiration pneumonia but according to today’s autopsy, for the first time it was revealed that my mum had cancer. I didn’t know that they never told me, she said.
She accuses the hospital of improper administration of treatment to her mum during her stay at the hospital resulting in diagnosis and misdiagnosis.
“I wish they told me the truth. They told me it’s pneumonia. I wish they told us Mum had terminal cancer,” said Nyambeya sobbing uncontrollably.
She wants the Kenya Medical Practitioners Council (KMPC) to unravel the mystery of misdiagnosis by doctors.
The hospital was accused of making incessant calls to the daughter to top up the money she had paid as a deposit.
“Even today they refused to release her medical records to carry out autopsy,” revealed Nyambeya adding if she knew her mum had cancer, she could have received different treatment.
“I was very harassed by the hospital for money. I even used to hide in the ward. It has traumatized me a lot,” she decried.
Rapid Response Officer MUHURI Francis Auma calls for accountability of private hospitals in the country.
“Her mum’s death was painful under the watch of doctors who are supposed to save lives. We hired a private pathologist who found out that the doctors messed and she died too early because of the negligence of doctors and greed for money,’’ he said.
Lawyer Concern Citizen Bradley Ouna said they would report the medical negligence case to the Kenya Medical and Dentists Practitioners Council and file an inquest in court.
“The doctors were treating a condition they were not aware of and they didn’t want to know,” he said.
By Sadik Hassan
