Ann Mutai, a mother of two, sought medical treatment at Nakuru level five hospital (PGH) on August 4 in the hope that her 10-month old son would be treated for his congested chest.

Unfortunately, her son, Frank Roy breathed his last the following day due to what she terms as negligence by the medical staff present at the time.

Ms Mutai shares that her baby had been ill three weeks before meeting his demise, and had been recently discharged on July 30 before reporting back on August 4.

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On the fateful day, Ms Mutai says “We arrived at the hospital at noon but my son was not attended to until 8:00 pm yet the doctor had said the boy was in a critical condition.”

She further explains that upon arrival at the hospital, she and her child went to the casualty area where the baby was received and immediately put on oxygen and given an injection.

In the process, she was advised to 'open a file' for the son to be admitted.

“By the time we were getting to the ward, it was already 3pm. My son was still on oxygen.”

The paediatric ward where baby Frank Roy was admitted.

Photo credit: WINNIE KIMANI/MTAA WANGU

At the ward, Ms Mutai says the doctors insisted on extracting some blood to have a look at what the baby was suffering from. It took one hour and thirty minutes to find a vein, since the baby was already cold at that time.

Once the child’s blood was drawn, Ms Mutai claims it took three hours for her son to be assigned a bed. By this time, it was heading to 8pm.

“When we finally got a bed, my son was put on a drip. A short while after, a doctor who only introduced himself as Dr Alex came and looking at the drip, said it was the wrong one and needed to be changed. The drip was already half way through,” she painfully narrates.

It was at this point that things started going downhill for Ms Mutai and her son.

The mother says that they were taken to an emergency room where her son was put on oxygen the entire night. This is after begging to get an ICU bed, which she was told was unavailable.

“I wondered why they denied my son an ICU bed yet a two month old baby was given preference to access the ICU.”

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According to the mother, they accessed the ICU at 7:00 am after the baby had breathed his last, but the medical officers in charge pretended to take the baby to the ICU even after reading the machine that showed no pulse.

Three hours later, she was informed of her baby’s demise.

Mtaa Wangu got access to the file report of August 4 that shows there was an unoccupied ICU bed from the six beds available, which means there was space for Frank Roy.

While confirming the sad ordeal, the hospital's Medical Superintendent James Waweru says that the report indicates, the clinical officer gave the go ahead of the baby to access the ICU, while the medical officer did not.

“There was one unoccupied bed that night, but the miscommunication between the two officers could be the reason behind the delay that led to Frank Roy being taken to the ICU in the morning,” he notes.

He ends by saying “I will have to call a meeting tomorrow (Friday) and get why things unfolded that way, since I was not aware.”

Frank Roy will be laid to rest on Saturday at the South cemetery.

mandikizella@gmail.com

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Mother mourns death of 10-month old son, blames PGH for negligence

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