Court directs Karen Hospital to strike out-of-court deal with patient stuck with a Ksh.23M plus bill

The family of a patient who is stuck at the Karen Hospital- with a bill spilling into the millions- has asked a Nairobi court to dismiss an application by the hospital seeking to have their family member transferred to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).

The hospital in its earlier application asked the court to allow them to discharge the patient Jackline Nelima Mutaki for Home-based care or alternatively, grant consent for her referral to the KNH.

The patient’s husband Michael Omusula wants an independent doctor to be allowed to assess his wife’s current medical condition.

He asked the court to dismiss the application, arguing that the hospital intending to burden the public resources as a result of private institution negligence.

In an affidavit, Omusula says his wife delivered through an Elective Caesarean section on  February 16, 2019.

She had been cleared for the procedure by the facility.

He claims that after two hours and on inquiring on the status of the delivery process he was informed that the wife had been taken to the intensive care unit.

Upon trying to find out what had happened he was ushered out of the ICU and told to wait for a briefing in the evening.

“Much later on the doctors called and informed me that my wife was bleeding heavily and required additional blood,”reads the affidavit.

Omusula claims that he was informed that his wife had developed complications after the administration of the anaesthesia and that her blood pressure went down while the baby was still in the womb and she became unconscious.

According to the papers, the doctors made a decision to deliver the baby before resuscitating the wife.

He says that his wife has been in the hospital for over one year and that she is in a very bad condition adding that the family has not abandoned her.

According to Omusula the hospital owes a duty to take care of the wife adding that the hospital was negligent and acted in bad faith .

The court has now given parties in the case a period of 14 days to negotiate for an out-of-court-settlement failure to which, the court case will proceed.