Kisumu referral hospital on the spot as woman dies after birth
An ambulance delivers a patient at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kisumu. A family accuses the hospital of negligence in the death of a relative. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Hospital accused of keeping secret death of woman for six days.
- Doctors say lung infection might have killed the woman.
The main referral hospital in western Kenya is facing questions of possible medical negligence after a woman died while giving birth in a suspected case of anaesthesia overdose.
The family of Winny Makitu says she was taken to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital while in labour.
She gave birth but never woke up.
Makitu's family members say they were told six days later that she died.
THEATRE
While the hospital insists the emergency team had to take her to theatre, and later, intensive care unit, the family says the hospital kept the death secret after doctors realising they had blundered.
Mr Willys Makitu, the woman's elder brother, told the Sunday Nation that his sister walked to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital on March 16 after being referred from St Vincent Catholic Hospital in Muhoroni.
Doctors at Jaramogi Hospital took her to theatre and she gave birth to a baby girl.
That was the genesis of the controversy.
COMPLICATION
She had been in labour for two days and had to be taken to theatre because her cervix had narrowed, doctors said.
Under normal circumstances, contractions during labour are supposed to make the cervix open up for birth.
“The child was delivered well, but Winny developed a complication immediately. She was wheeled to the ICU AS she could not breathe on her own,” Mr Makuti said.
Doctors, however, said she was taken to ICU when she developed complications after birth.
FULL REPORT
But the family suspects the patient reacted to an overdose of anaesthesia during the Caesarean Section.
“On Wednesday, the deputy in-charge of the hospital summoned us for a meeting and said the hospital was doing an audit of what could have transpired at the theatre. The official promised to give us a full report by Friday and that was when they told us she was dead,” Mr Makuti added.
Dr Benjamin Ndimbire, an independent pathologist, told the Sunday Nation that Winny had a lung infection and her death might have been triggered by the anaesthesia.
LAB TESTING
“Anaesthesia is what worsened her condition. When we were conducting the postmortem examination, we noticed her lungs had tissues, pointing to an infection,” Dr Ndimbire said.
He did not rule out overdose, but said doctors had taken tissue and blood samples to the government laboratory for testing.
“The results for the tissues will come out after seven working days but for the blood test, which will clearly tell whether there was an overdose or not, we are working with three months at most because of the queue at the laboratory,” he said.
INFORMATION
Dr Solomon Sava, the hospital’s pathologist, also said the woman died from an infection in the lungs and that being a surgical patient, it was one of the complications that would have been expected.
“There was a need for surgery, given the clinical information that given to us earlier,” he said.
Dr Sava said the patient might have acquired the infection during or after the operation.
He said the anaesthesia may have hindered delivery of oxygen to the lungs.
NEWS BROKEN
According to Dr Juliana Otieno, the hospital’s CEO, the patient was taken to theatre because her condition had grown worse.
“After the complication arose, she was taken to ICU since she could not breathe on her own. We could not pronounce her dead because there was still a pulse. She died on Friday morning. That is when we broke the news to the family,” said Dr Otieno.
She denied reports that the hospital withheld information to the family, saying during Winny’s six days at the ICU, the doctors often updated her relatives on her situation.
PROTOCOL
However, the CEO would not deny or confirm claims of overdose, saying only a blood test result would determine that.
“With all the maternal deaths, it is a requirement by the government that a postmortem examination is done on the body,” Dr Otieno said.
She added that the hospital followed the relevant protocol where a consent form was signed before the patient was taken for surgery.
The death comes hot on the heels of another botched C-Section case at Kenyatta National Hospital, which has left the patient fighting for her life.
