Governor Sakaja pleads with Senate not to shut down Mama Lucy hospital

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has pleaded with the Senate Committee on Health not to shut down Mama Lucy Level 5 public hospital, which is at the centre of a Parliamentary investigation over alleged deaths caused by health workers' negligence of patients.

The legislative public health watchdog inspected the facility on Wednesday and questioned the practitioners who handled the late mother of twins Maureen Onyango and Edward Otieno before they died over alleged hospital staff negligence.

The hospital’s maternity wing, where the late Maureen Onyango succumbed to excessive bleeding after giving birth to twins, was for the first time shown to the Senate Health Committee by the facility's management.

The inspection of the maternity wards and theatre section comes a month after families of Maureen Onyango and Edward Otieno gave harrowing accounts of how their loved ones succumbed due to alleged negligence by health workers on duty.

“Nikamwita nurse please kuja uangalia mke wangu ana bleed. Hakushughulika alipita, nao watoto ndio hao wanalia. At the same time nang’ang’ana na mtoto anyonye and trying to cover the other one,” Robert Omondi, the late Maureen Onyango's husband, said on November 1,2022.

“Nilipigiwa simu nikaambiwa mama usipokuja hapa saa hii hakuna atakaye shughulikia mtoto wako,” Ruth Otieno, the late Edward Otieno's mother, added at the time.

The respective health officers who directly and indirectly handled the late Maureen Onyango and Edward Otieno on the fateful days were taken to task by the committee over alleged negligence while on duty.

“The only problem I have is by the time the patient was falling from the seat, it means that he was losing consciousness so someone should have been monitoring him,” Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago stated.

“The reversal of general anaesthesia had to start so it means that something was not right, it means there is something Dr Hassan you did not do,” added nominated Senator Hamida Kibwana.

Dr Hassan Ahmed responded: “The doctor would have been informed to attend to the mother at that moment but generally the entire process was seamless.”

Senator Mandago also questioned the delay by the ambulance driver who was said to have been moving from Kiambu to Nairobi.

He said: “The ambulance took so long to arrive in Kiambu, and it is only 20 kilometres away ...we were told he even got lost.”

In his response, the driver Godfrey Musalia said, “An ambulance is just like any other PSV whose maximum speed limit is 80 kilometres per hour, plus the patient was in critical condition.”

Governor Sakaja while pleading with the Parliamentary health watchdog not to shut down the facility called for the transfer of the hospital from the central government to the county management.

“Let us just give it some time, Nairobi will work and we shall fix the city's healthcare,” Sakaja said.