City hospital medics accused of negligence after patient’s death

Mbagathi hospital. Nurses at the city hospital are on the spot following the death of a patient in what has been termed by the deceased’s kin as negligence. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The family of Bernard Odhiambo claims their patient was denied treatment at Mbagathi hospital after being referred from Mama Lucy hospital, both run by the county government of Nairobi.
  • But the deceased’s cousin, Evans Ayodo, speaking on phone, said he had accompanied the deceased from 9am; hired a taxi from Mama Lucy to Mbagathi where they were not attended to by a nurse.

Nurses at a city hospital are on the spot following the death of a patient in what has been termed by the deceased’s kin as negligence.

The family of Bernard Odhiambo claims he was denied treatment at Mbagathi Hospital after being referred from Mama Lucy Hospital, both run by the Nairobi County government.

However, county officials and Mbagathi Hospital administrators have put a new twist on the matter, claiming Mr Odhiambo arrived at the hospital already dead.

According to county executive for health Bernard Muia, Mr Odhiambo died before arriving at the facility.

The distraught family took to social media to vent their frustrations and anger following the Saturday incident.

To them, the patient was referred from Mama Lucy Hospital to Mbagathi because of lack of isolated wards for TB patients.

However, Dr Muia, speaking the the Nation by phone, contradicted the family, stating that they had been advised to take Mr Odhiambo back home since he was still under medication and that there was a provision for home-based medical care for TB patients.

ACCOUNT DISPUTED

“Once you are suffering from tuberculosis and you are under medication, the doctors can advise your family to have home-based care, but they were unsatisfied so they decided to take him to Mbagathi Hospital,” he said.

But Mr Odhiambo's cousin, Evans Ayodo, speaking by phone, said he had been with him since 9am and had hired a taxi from Mama Lucy to Mbagathi, where they sought help for him but he was not attended to by a nurse.

“I rushed to the casualty, explained my case to a seemingly old nurse but she rubbished me, saying they only handle such cases during weekdays.

"I had to explain to her that it was an emergency, that my cousin was critically sick. She then told me to get a wheelchair then transfer him to one of the beds,” said Mr Ayodo.

But Dr Muia disputed Mr Ayodo's account, saying the patient did not spend eight hours unattended as claimed by his family but only two minutes during which the examination officer declared him dead on arrival.

Mr Ayodo, however, said that another nurse who was attending another patient on a bed near his cousin’s, asked for the referral letter, which she read and responded that the patient’s condition was not critical.

'IT'S NOT CRITICAL'

“I approached the medical officer, told her our problem, she asked for the referral letter, I tried handing it over to her but she just told me to open it up so she could read it while I held it.

"I did just that, then told her, 'This is a critical case, please check on him', [but] her response was, 'It’s not critical', and then she walked away to the next room,” he said.

He added that at around 1pm, Mr Odhiambo's wife came to him as he was still pleading with the nurses and told him that her husband had become unresponsive.

Mr Ayodo said he then rushed to Mr Odhiambo's bed but could not feel his cousin’s pulse.

He said he called the nurse, who walked in and declared the patient dead and directed him to another room where he could record the death.

However, the county has maintained that the man was never admitted to the hospital as he had been pronounced dead on arrival.

The county also denies the family had any referral letter from Mama Lucy Hospital.