Reprieve for deaf patients as nurses training launched

A 28-year-old expectant woman in her final trimester experiences a gush of pain in her belly.

Her brother hires a taxi and takes her to the nearest health centre.

At the hospital she gets frustrated as she tries to explain to the staff the nature of the pain in her abdomen.

Doctors and nurses are tongue-tied, literally, and admit her on assumption that labour contractions have began.

In the maternity ward, she reaches out to one of the nurses on duty and gestures at her stomach.

The attending nurse cannot interpret the signal. The young mother signals again. This mother-to-be is deaf and illiterate.

Ms Fatuma Ngoto, a nurse at Coast General Hospital, vividly remembers the events of this day five years ago while on duty at the maternity wing.

“The devastation in her eyes as I tried to decode the message is something I will never forget,” Ms Ngoto explains.

Abdominal pains

However, one of the support staff at the hospital was conversant in basic Kenyan Sign Language and came to her rescue.

“Through the interpreter she explained that she was experiencing sharp abdominal pains and the baby had not kicked that day,” Ms Ngoto says.

With this information the nurse called the doctor in charge and the expectant woman was booked into theatre where she underwent a successful Caesarean section.

“Today the child is healthy and attending kindergarten but I developed a desire to learn Kenyan Sign Language (KSL),” she says.

Sign language uses a system of manual, facial, and other body movements as the means of communication, especially among deaf people.

Ms Ngoto’s dilemma is replayed in most hospitals as the deaf seek health services.

Despite health being a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution, communication barrier is rife.

Article 43 (a) of the Constitution under the Bill of Rights guarantees every person the highest attainable standard of health.

However, the situation is bound to improve if a plan to train nurses in basic sign language by the Department of Nursing under collaborative efforts of the ministries of Medical Services and Public Health takes off successfully.