Another Surgical Blunder Puts Kenyatta National Hospital on the Spot

Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is on the headlines yet again for the wrong reasons

This time, a woman is accusing the facility of mishandling her Caesarean section. Susan Nekesa said she delivered twin girls at the facility on January 26th through Caesarean procedure.

However, after the surgical procedure, her stomach became swollen and she began experiencing excruciating pain. So much was the pain that she could barely speak. Lying on a hospital bed, a seemingly hurting Nekesa narrated her ordeal to a located TV station.

She said: “Naomba Mungu memory yangu isipotee… (I am praying that I do not lose my memory).

“When I came to see her, I found that she had a swollen stomach,” says Evelyn Anindo, Nekesa's sister.

Anindo added: “Her stomach was also very hot and she could not talk. We communicated using signs.”

After she informed KNH medical staff of her condition, she was taken back to the theatre, where doctors admitted to making a blunder during the CS.

“It was discovered that the surgery was done wrongly,” says Robert Sitati, Nekesa’s husband.

“A portion of the small intestines, like 50cm, was outside the chamber where it was supposed to be,” he says.

To correct the mistake, the medics removed the affected part of Nekesa’s intestines and left a small opening to allow her pass stool through a colostomy bag.

To add salt on the injury, on Tuesday, the family received shocking news that one of their twins had passed away.

“They said that my child had a hole in the heart,” says distressed Nekesa.

However, Nekesa’s husband said that one of KHN staff member confessed to him that their child chocked on milk.

“Someone told me that the person who fed my child was not very experienced,” says Sitati.

The family decried how the hospital has neglected Nekesa, even after causing her the pain.

“Nobody is taking care of her,” says Evelyn.

“When the colostomy bag gets full, it is up to her [the patient] to struggle to the bathroom to empty it.”

“They have kept me here for so long…I have been persevering…with the hope than one day I will go and see my children,” Nekesa says.

The incident comes in the backdrop of another surgical mishap at the facility involving two brain patients. In the case, a brain surgery was conducted on the wrong patient.

Incidents of rape on new mothers and child theft at KNH have also been reported in the past few months.