Doctors all set to remove bullet in baby’s head

Cyprian Osinya, the boy who was shot in the head when gunmen opened fire on worshippers in Likoni, Mombasa last Sunday, was on Tuesday evacuated to Nairobi for specialised treatment.

The one-and-a-half-year-old boy is scheduled to undergo an intricate operation that is fraught with risks.

A bullet from one of three gunmen who attacked worshippers at the Joy in Jesus Church is lodged in his head. The same bullet killed his mother, Veronica, who died while shielding Cyprian from the hooded attackers who are yet to be apprehended.

Cyprian arrived at the Kenyatta National Hospital at 12.53pm on an Amref ambulance together with his father, Mr Benson Osinya.

The Amref Flying Doctors team that took the young Osinya to KNH recorded his name as Cyprian, a variation from Satrine, the name recorded at the Coast General Hospital where the boy was first admitted under the care of an elderly relative.

Doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital on Tuesday said that when they operate on Cyprian’s skull, they will follow the direction that the bullet entered the head and retrieve it in an operation that could last anywhere between four and five hours if there are no complications.

However, Dr Gichuru Mwangi and Dr Peter Wanyoike said that the intricate operation was risky as it could cause complications such as impairing the boy’s speech, memory, vision and balance among other possible side effects.

Dr Mwangi, a neurosurgeon, ruled out the possibility of immediate surgery, saying that Cyprian will be given a day or two for the swelling on his head to subside and the surgery could be scheduled in the next fortnight.

“He has been placed under medical observation at specialised unit Ward 4C as we map the way forward in his treatment and management,” Dr Mwangi said during a media briefing.

According consultant neurosurgeon Peter Wanyoike, the bullet is lodged on the right side of the brain in the area that is responsible for visual information. However, this has not affected the boy’s eyesight.

“The child is responding to commands of speech, limb movement and can see. More vision-specific tests are expected to be done before we decide what next,” said Dr Mwangi.

Meanwhile, the doctors explained that he had been placed on antibiotics to control infection and other drugs known as anticonvulsants which prevent seizures.

Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia — who was among government officials who received Cyprian and his father at KNH at 12.55pm yesterday — said the child was airlifted to Nairobi because there was no brain specialist in the Coast region.

He commended the team at the Coast General Hospital, saying they did a remarkable job stabilising the patients, including Cyprian.

“Of the 15 patients that had been admitted from the Sunday attack at the Coast General Hospital, eight were discharged and the others are undergoing intense medical check-up and will be referred in case they require specialised care,” he said.

KNH chief executive Lily Koros described the Sunday church attack as horrifying, perturbing and inhuman.

“We are horrified because what we saw should not be happening in any country, leave alone ours,” Ms Koros said at a news briefing at the hospital.

According to the Amref medical director, Dr Bettina Vadera, her team had communicated with KNH on Monday and agreed to transfer Cyprian for specialised treatment.

“They immediately agreed to facilitate the baby’s further treatment,” she told journalists at the Wilson Airport where her team had arrived from Mombasa earlier in the day before the boy was transferred to KNH in an ambulance.

“It is them who will decide how the baby will be treated after investigations and assessments,” she said.

Her organisation paid for the cost of evacuating the boy under a programme that benefits poor patients in serious medical conditions especially in rural and far-flung regions.