Kenyan Hospital on the Spot after 11-Year-Old Girl Admitted for Eye Surgery Leaves without Teeth
PCEA Kikuyu Mission Hospital in Kiambu is on the spot following claims of a botched surgery that has left the life of an 11-year-old girl in danger.
The mother of the girl, Martha Wanjiku, a casual laborer in Molo, Nakuru County, says the life of her daughter took a sudden turn following an eye surgery done at the hospital on December 22nd, 2018.
The mother of two says her daughter Caren went for the procedure after one of her eyes was accidentally pierced by a panga.
“Caren was with Nyambura cutting grass and a cow began moving towards them. So Caren bent to pick a stick to chase the cow away, in the process of bending the panga they were using hit her on the eye, piercing her,” narrates the mother.
She was taken to the Nakuru Provincial General Hospital for treatment but was referred to the PCEA Kikuyu Mission Hospital due to lack of doctors to conduct the cornea repair surgery.
Caren was wheeled into the Kiambu hospital's surgery room at about 4:30 pm on December 22nd for the procedure, but what was to be a simple surgery turned out to be the beginning of a nightmare for the family.
Her family became impatient after Caren remained in the theatre for quite a long time, raising fears that something could have gone wrong.
After demanding to see her daughter, Martha was informed that the patient needed to be admitted to the intensive care unit as she had failed to wake up after the operation.
She was referred to another hospital because the facility's only ICU bed was scheduled to cater for a more complicated case.
Martha says Caren developed breathing complications after the surgery and surprisingly, her teeth were missing.
“My daughter has no teeth; they didn’t tell us why they removed them. Yet she was going into the theater for eye surgery. Now I have a bill of Sh2 million from all these complications,” says Martha.
She is now demanding justice for her daughter against hospital as her firstborn child continues to fight for her life.