Thika Mt Sinai Hospital on spot over man’s mysterious death
What you need to know:
- The details of how he fell and sustained multiple fractures in almost all parts of the body remain scanty.
- Dr Patrick Nyaga said the old man died three hours after he was brought to there.
- A post-mortem examination will be done Wednesday to establish the cause of the fractures.
A private hospital in Thika is on the spot after a patient who had been admitted due to chest pains succumbed to mysterious multiple fractures inflicted all over his body during his short stay at the facility over the weekend.
Joseph Ngige Kiarie, 78, was admitted to Mt Sinai Hospital on Saturday with chest pains, only to later succumb to multiple fractures while receiving treatment at Thika Level Five Hospital on Monday morning.
The family said they were informed that Kiarie mysteriously fell at the private hospital and was rushed by staff to the referral hospital on Sunday morning.
FRACTURES
The details of how he fell and sustained what doctors at Thika Level Five Hospital Tuesday described as poly-trauma — meaning multiple fractures in almost all parts of the body — remain scanty.
The referral hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Patrick Nyaga, said the old man died three hours after he was brought to there.
“The patient was brought in bearing injuries all over his body. We began the process of establishing the extent of his injuries before embarking on specialised treatment but in a span of about three hours of taking care of him, his condition deteriorated and we lost him,” said Dr Nyaga.
BASIC DETAILS
He added that the referral sheet that accompanied the patient only contained "basic" details of his injuries.
“The history of the patient is not very clear but the referral sheet said he was a patient of poly-trauma, resulting from a fall over a height,” added Dr Nyaga.
The family now wants the private hospital compelled to reveal the truth about their father’s death.
Since his admission, the family said they had kept monitoring his progress, adding that on a number of occasions, the old man insisted that he had healed and that he needed to go home to look after his grandchildren and livestock.
“He particularly said he wanted to be released to go tend to his children and livestock,” said Mr Muriithi Njeru, Kiarie’s son-in-law, who visited the hospital on Sunday over lunch hour.
CALL FROM HOSPITAL
That same Sunday, the old man spoke to his wife and son Kinyanjui at 5pm and 10pm respectively.
At around 2am, the family was called by a staff member at Mt Sinai Hospital and told that their father had been transferred to Thika Level Five Hospital.
On Tuesday, the family said they were getting conflicting information about the incident.
“While some are saying that he fell off through the third floor’s balcony, others are insisting that he fell down on the stairs next to the male ward while leaving the toilet,” a relative said.
Medics at Mt Sinai blocked the media from accessing the hospital.
A post-mortem examination will be done Wednesday to establish the cause of the fractures.
