Parents of child with coin stuck in his throat desperate as doctors still on strike
Three-and-a-half-year-old Samson Kaingu who has a coin stuck in his thoat (right, x-ray) with his parents, Mwangiri Kaingu Chakwe and Riziki Tsuma. With the ongoing doctors’ strike, they have been unable to get help from public hospitals yet they cannot afford to pay for an operation in private hospitals. PHOTOS | WINNIE ATIENO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The child can neither eat solid foods nor excrete.
- Efforts by the parents to seek help from public hospitals in the county have been futile due to doctors’ strike.
- At Coast Provincial General Hospital, surgery services have been paralysed by the strike.
- His mother, Riziki Tsuma, says the child cries all night.
The health of three-and-a-half-year-old child in Bamburi area, Mombasa County is quickly deteriorating after swallowing a coin that got stuck in his throat two weeks ago.
The child can neither eat solid foods nor excrete.
The child’s parent said the baby swallowed the coin while playing with his mates in school in Bamburi on January 18.
Efforts by the parents to seek help from public hospitals in the county have been futile due to doctors’ strike.
At Coast Provincial General Hospital, surgery, maternity and outpatient services have been paralysed due to the doctors’ strike which started on December 5, 2016.
“He swallowed the coin on January 18 while playing with his mates at school.
“The teacher called me and we rushed him to hospital [and] after the x-ray we confirmed that he had swallowed the coin. Doctors told me to give him fruits like bananas,” said the father, Mwangiri Kaingu Chakwe.
PRIVATE HOSPITALS EXPENSIVE
He said he took his son to two private hospitals and one asked him to pay Sh80,000 for an operation while another asked Sh60,000, which he could not raise.
“We cannot afford that amount. I later went to Coast Provincial General Hospital but I was told there are no services due to the doctors’ strike.
"I am now stuck with my baby who can’t eat, he cries all night,” added the mother, Riziki Tsuma.
“I wash clothes to earn a living [and] my husband is a boda boda raider. I had taken my child to school as usual, [then] I was called [and] told he had swallowed a coin,” she added.
An x-ray photo taken at a private hospital in the county shows the coin stuck in the child’s throat.
Baby, Samson Kaingu is now taking fluids as he cannot swallow food due to the stuck coin.
