Mental patient said to leap to death from KNH ward

A 30-year-old man is suspected to have committed suicide at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) early Tuesday morning following a disagreement with his family.

Mr Maurice Chege was admitted to the national referral hospital on August 9.

Sources at KNH said he was diagnosed with acute psychosis, which was suspected to have been caused by substance abuse.

Psychosis, a symptom of serious mental disorder, is a medical condition characterised by an impaired relationship with reality.

FACTORS

Psychotic people may have either hallucinations or delusions.

However, acute psychosis can be caused by many psychiatric and medical conditions.

Each case of psychosis is different and the exact cause is not always clear.

There are however certain illnesses that cause psychosis, as well as triggers such as drug abuse, lack of sleep and other environmental factors.

TREATMENT
In addition, certain situations can lead to specific types of psychosis to develop.

According to the hospital, Mr Chege was discharged on Monday, five days since his admission, after doctors at the facility stabilised him.

But he died the following night before he could leave the hospital.

“We had managed to stabilise him, so much that he was able to hold conversations with his family,” a nurse at the facility who sought anonymity said.

According to a police report, Mr Chege jumped off the seventh floor of the hospital, where he was undergoing treatment, and died upon landing on a pavement.

He was admitted in Ward 7D.

STRESS
The seventh and eighth floors of the hospital host patients suffering from communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV/Aids, pneumonia and Tuberculosis (TB).

The hospital could not say whether the death of Mr Chege — whose body was found by security guards — was a result of his medical condition or stress over unpaid bills as alleged by some media outlets.

He was supposed to be transferred to Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital, Nairobi, which specialises in mental illnesses.

AUTOPSY

However, that was not possible since the hospital is closed due to the ongoing nurses’ strike.

The body was moved to the KNH mortuary for a post-mortem.

Mr Chege’s family said they would comment on the matter after seeking legal advice.