WHY WE SHOULD ALL KEEP OFF NAIROBI WOMEN'S HOSPITAL (PART I)

So, my sister falls pregnant, gets checked and finds out she's expecting triplets, six months down the line, she starts to labour, she is rushed to the hospital, induced and gives birth to her bundles of joy without any problem. The first baby succumbs and dies hours later, the second one is immediately put into the incubator and follows her sister, the third one survives well and is in good condition. In the meantime, my sister who checked into the hospital on Friday evening is discharged the following day. Come Sunday, she gets a call that the third child succumbed to her prematurity and died too. CATASTROPHY !

I seriously mourned those babies like they were my own and immediately started looking up facts on the internet on the chances of survival for premature triplets. I found out that in this age and era, not unless one is giving birth in a region where they have  no access to improved medical facilities, the babies had a very high chance of surviving, given that she was in one of the alleged prestigious hospital, Nairobi Women's Hospital.

I started questioning why they had to discharge my sister like so early without any form of counselling or further check-up nor explanation as to whatever happened, but then with time, my fears were confirmed after having come across what seems to be a drop in the ocean of what other women have gone through under this establishment. Below are some of the stories that came up in one of the Kenyan women groups on facebook and I am sure many more shall still come up.

I am sending this email so that other women may not fall prey to this trap since of late its either mama and/or child who end up dying.

Do the same and help save lives. Let's all avoid Nairobi Women's Hospital and all their branches like a bad plague.

Help spread the news. Send this out to all the blogs, all your friends and family, to anyone who cares to. And if in any doubt, I suggest you join a group in facebook called « Are you a Kenyan mom ?Join this group NOW » to know that this is for real and the sabbotage is not against any other hospital.

1.      All these stories of nairobi womens are heartbreakng .my heart goes out to all the mums whv lost their LO's thea..personaly my pressure shot up,i actualy developed eclampsia the whole convulsions and fitting, was rushed to agakhan n my presure ws stabilisd n immediatly went 4 an emergency cs,my son ws deliverd at 33wks n stayd at NICU 4 a week,hz nw 3mnths n weighs 6.2kgz frm 1.9...those docs at nairobi womens are negligent...am wondering what can ba done coz its too much...

2.      This might not be very popular BUT I think the media should be involved as a third party to make sure the hospitals, the Medical group that investigates mistakes stay oncourse and the public is made aware. This should be an investigational report not a sensational media blast to be taken seriously. The Dr. Names should be included too ( I know this is sensitive and it is someones career) but anyone who touched the patient is held resposible and the head (DR) takes the final blame. Medical mistakes do happen, God knows, I have made them and been on the receiving end, BUT I have learned honest communication from the get go is important. NWH is negligent. Do they even do Grand Rounds to see how many mothers and babies die in their facility? Why they died and what to do to prevent this deaths? If they did, they would know for sure something is going wrong in this facility and who are the responsible parties. Drs are human too and mistakes do happen but the grimm reaper seems to be living in NWH. As women we are responsible of our health especially during pregnancy because we are affecting someone elses' life. But surely how come one hospital is having all these deaths? and complains from those who make it out alive?

3.      I am here, am not afraid to say what I went through, God helped me my kid is OK but I witnessed a scary story as a mum went through trauma coz of her kid...nkt,and they stole from me, I recovered some cash and I bled alot with no one caring....

4.       I have remembered btw, my sis in law also went there, her kid survived but guess what, her theatre story was horror, her anaesthesia(sp) dint quite work n imagine she told me that se could feel as they operated but couldnt do much....oh dear, smthg gotta be done!

5.      I delivered there about a year ago thru cs and on the bill they charged me for induction drugs which i did not use. thankfully my sisters are docs and helped me cut down my bill by like 10k coz they wrote drugs n procedures i didnt use. now am about to get my second n definately not going back there!! i will so sign that pettition!!!!

6.      Aki nairobi womens adams, you dare charge me 1.4m 4 2wks n jana my son dint finish a day thea n docs put thea charges to a 100k God be with U (this being the most recent case of a mama who lost her son, that made us all to flip).

7.      That hospital is known for beefing up the bill, the unfortunate thing is that they even justify it...i had a cousin who was there for one week, the gloves/actal charges and the docs fee was inflated by 10k yet she had never seen that doc, when asked they said the doc came to check on her at 4am while she was asleep thats why she cant remember...not forgeting the doc had written a 2 page report...i found it wierd ...

8.       Yesterday I went 4 some drugs just 4 ante natal care so not many n the bill was over 1ok...and yet they aer on donor funding as the doc told me... (we should find out about the donor and sabbotage the funds)

9.      NWH how can a matter of urgency taken you almost 10 years to fix. The use if the word "IF ANY PROBLEMS" shows that you believe there are no problems. Your response is straight from a text book, what annoys is when I read through the replies and I feel like I have to give you advice on what to say in term of PR, it goes to show even the medical part is also lacking alot. As Lia Efex stated coming for a one day inspection does not fix years of failure. You know who will satisy us? HAPPY MOTHERS WHO HAVE DELIVERED IN YOUR FACILTY BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN TREATED WITH DIGNITY AND HAVE GOTTEN THE BEST CARE. This is what you should be saying, DeaRr ALL KENYANS ....we have heard your complains and those of countless mothers about our facility and this is what we are doing about it. 1. First let me (NWH) apologize to you and all other women who have suffered in our facility. We take full responsibility for what has been going on. 2. Second, we are planning to retrain our employees on (put the date here) 3. We have gotten rid of the few bad apples 4. Patients who are treated badly should report to (put an email account, FB account, phone number) 5. We promise you in one year we will be updating you on our growth and we hope to have good news then......It sucks that I even have to do your PR job for you too. Kwani what is the job description here? (PS I am sorry but my intention is not to be rude or uncoth to NWH) but it is frustrating to see just how much incompetence runs in your hospitals.

10.  Doctors are complaining that after working at your hospital you take SIX WHOLE MONTHS to pay them, here are mothers laying serious complaints about services yet your staff also remain grossly a disenfranchised and disappointed lot. Too easy to connect the dots.

11.  The docs there are not only drunk....i met one who was in civilian clothes...with no badge to identify himself....he just came in to my bed when i had contractions....rudely told me that he wanted to check if i have dilated....up to now i honestly do not know if he was really a doc or just someone from the streets.........NWH please as mothers it gets to a point where enough is enough......such stuff cannot be happening at this age and time.......infants cannot be dying at that rate and nobody is held accountable...........medicine is a calling and not something that anyone can just do.....most of your staff treat patients like they are a burden, no professialism at all and zero respect!

12.  I have both good and bad experiences at Nairobi womens. They broke my daughters hand during delivery and no one mentioned it to me.

13.  Somebody mentioned to me how they went to NWH n the cashier was drunk, doc drunk n i thought he was dissing. Later a pal mentions how their bill more than doubled th normal delivery package. I delivered at their adams branch last yr n was pissed mostly by 1. Th doc who checked me out before admission said i had dilated 5cm so i was admitted based on that. 2. On arriving at th ward a mid wife checked n said almost 2cm. I ask im told 'wale wa huko chini saa zingine hawajuangi'. Qn. Then who shud b downstairs for maternity cases? From there i got a nice doc, good nurses who i wouldnt complain abt esp th night time midwives were very very caring. Baby was so well taken care of after delivery.My next complain goes to th day time nurses who delivered th baby. My stitches were so shoddily done they fell off next day after goin home makin my wound heal so slowly. Mums whov had normal delivery doesnt it take a week or 2? Mine took over a month! From my experience, theres a management prob. Thats why theres such a big diff btwn th good n bad workers. Th good ones r simply self motivated

14.  I started my antenatal at NWH but changed after 2 appointments... their services are so bad, sorry to say, i switched to a private doc, referred by my two good friends, and booked my delivery at Nai hospital. No point, just switch coz you are paying after all!

15.  Nwh is just crappy had a very nasty experience there that i left 2 days before my stay was over. Their staff are SOO UNPROFFESSIONAL,DISORGANISED AND NOT 4GETTING A VERY ROUGH NURSE I MET AT THE NURSERY MAN HANDLING NEW BORNS WIT NAILS ALMOST 6INCHES!!

16.  I also have a not so good experince with NWH (adams branch) I went for one antenatal appointment and my conclusion is at they jus wanna make money by hook or crook reccomending unneccesary tests. my bif with them are they there to help their patients or are they jus out to take every last coin from patients. even the charges for kids must get vaccines surely!

17.  I was in your hospital and my dear it was hell for me...starting from rude nurses and docs....then the bill that did not even match the services i got......i was totally pissed by staying in the hospital so i asked to be discharged but the nurse in charge was super rude......she threatened that if we leave then my baby will stay back till i pay my bill yet in the invoice it states that the bill is sent three days after discharging the patient and u have to clear it then.....so talking of the bill....i had paid for a maternity package but come the bill......it had all the charges that i do not even know like gloves,the pampers you give to moms....so if you bill a patient for gloves......what does the maternity package cover? or its just a pay you make just cos u will deliver at NWH? you are very quick in inflating the bill......you really do not expect to have such stuff happen and let it go unnoticed....other mums here have complained of the same so look like that is a tendency there......lastly am sure you already know of all that goes on there so this is not new to you.........when i was there a lady lost her baby who was born with a cleft lip(something that can be corrected medically) and another one got healthy baby but the nurses put her in the incubator cos she 'looked' like she had jaundice! seriously as a mother(as you say you are) how do u feel knowing all this happens and you act all innocent.......is there humanity in your facility.......then when i was coming for ante natal clinic there was a girl who paid for treatment yet she was raped and we all know you get funding for the rape victims......the poor girl did not even have money for transport so i helped her.....now what do you have to say for all that........i will not bother to call you cos the usual answer will be 'oooh we are so sorry, we will follow up on that issue' i have called before and that was the answer i got! spare us this talk!

18.  I stay in kiserian,am 27wks pg and really wanted to deliver at NWH-Rongai. Most colleagues and friends who had gone there earlier discouraged me but i thought that my own experience would be different. but i swear that even before i could prepay for the package, i just got annoyed by a lot of stuff on their end. right now,shopping around for another facility.

19.  After wat happend 2 my gud friend at NWH, it got me thinking abt 2 seperate incidents.1st was my sista in law.she was here last year during the december holidays.she lives in finland.she looked funny to me n i told her that she myt be paged. To quench her curiosity,we decided to see a gyna @ NWH,after doing that urine thing turned negative. Then she went for an ultrasound. There was something inside it and wallah! She was told it was a cyst and she should have it removed. We refused and said we'd come back after the holidays. Today my sista in law is 6 months pregnant and she says, NWH is the last hospital she will ever go to. My neighbour was also expecting twins,she lost them through the same story @ NWH. We should expose these hospital before they leave more mothers childless!!!

20.  A friend of mine was 3months pregnant she started bleeding she rushed to NWH they did a test and told her she bleeding alot and lost the baby and need to be cleaned up then she was told to wait for the doc to come cos it was at night , she got impatient and decided to go to Nairobi hosi shock on her the baby was still alive and now is a very healthy handsome one year old boy

21.  I remember asking my colleague who was also pregnant for advice and she was like ehh she has been going for antenatals at NWH adams but she decided to jump ship to mater coz one lady doc there was extremely rude and lacked courtesy. My self i went there to inquire about their maternity charges but the reception was enough to send me running. They need a complete overhaul right from the reception.

22.  Clearly everyone should know, I visited the adams branch sometime back with a post natal problem, was taken to the theatre then suddenly the doc attendin me was called for an emergency at the hurlingam branch, I was left there waited the whole afternoon and eventually was told to dress up and leave.Was attended the following day despite the bleedin condition!

23.  My son was admitted there and I think they share the same paedetrician coz u have to wait mpaka atoke hurlingham. I heard to remove my son there coz still there was no change na bill ina pile up. I took him to y2k iko kibera and dats where my son got well. Its just aka small but a good hospital for kids. My son was treated natukarudi nyumbani the same day. By the way they had refused to discharge us saying eti mtoto bado hajapona. They are there for the cash nothin else.

These are stories as told by women who have been to this hospital and their branches that keep germinating all over the country like poisonus mushrooms. Unfortunately, they franchise the name of their hospital to other hospitals or clinics and doesn't even bother to check whether the staff are qualified or not. The right to good health is being compromised on women and their new borns in the name of making money.

It's about time everybody knew what's going on. We want the issues addressed, we want women invited to visit those establishments and talk to the patients to find out what kind of services they are receiving, that is when our fears shall be allayed. Until then, we shall keep on spreading the word to all and sundry that might lead to a shut down of the said establishments if need be. What have we got to loose if at all people shall continue dying ? So, its either better services or a shut down, no two ways about it !

From enraged women.