COMPLAINS FROM VICTIMS OF THE NAIROBI WOMEN'S HOSPITAL (PART 10)

We have tried our level best to bring into limelight complains that we have been receiving from former patients turned victims of the Nairobi Women's Hospital. Despite it all, it came to our notice in facebook via several prominent bloggers and journalists who are being used by the hospital as advertising agents that a new branch has just been opened in Eastleigh. Our question being, what becomes of all these victims? Who shall hear out their pleas if at all the Medical Board that is supposed to look into these matters can afford to complicate the matter further by giving out a form that demands for Kshs.2,000/= to present a case? The victims have already been ripped off by the hospital, and the board still wants to rip them off some more! Assuming we submit at least 100 victims and each is asked to fill the form and pay Kshs. 2,000/= that amounts to a total of Kshs.200,000/=, where is the logic? What is their purpose then?

To avoid any further bla bla, lemmi post for you today’s story of a young lady who suffered terribly at the hands of the rude staff of the NWH;

I got pregnant in 2010 and since NWH was so close to my house i chose to take it as the hospital for my delivery and all the antenatal clinic. I went and inquired about their rates and the receptionist there, Miss Leah Mululu was explaining to me all and she advised me to choose a maternity package that included antenatal visits and delivery. Since it was my first pregnancy me and my partner wanted to make it special so we asked at NWH if they have private rooms and Leah assured me that its possible but I would be on the waiting list and come delivery date it will be ready for me!

The ante natal clinics were expensive cos mostly when i went there they mostly gave me medicine that I had to pay since they were not in the maternity package but I did not worry cos I thought it was all for the good of my baby. I wanted a personal doctor but I was told that for that I would have to pay extra since the docs worked in shift......so with all the shift working I saw a different doctor each time and they forgot to give me a tetanus shot, am the one who asked them and kept reminding them. I wish that would have been a wake up call for me but I still continued going to their clinics.

I started bleeding on the night of 15th March, 2010 so my husband rushed me to  NWH, when we arrived there it was so quiet and we started joking that maybe the place was shut down but on looking further we saw the nurses all sleeping by the nurse station. We woke them up and they were a pissed about it, i was in a bit pain and instead of them offering me a seat they first asked to see my patient card to ensure I had fully paid for my maternity package, then they sent my husband to the administration office to pick my file as they just sat there.

I was then admitted in the maternity ward and after an hour a guy in civilian clothes with no name tag came and rudely asked to check if i had dilated, he said he was the doctor. After the doctor left I was left alone with my husband and he was practically the one doing all for me, the nurse was sleeping next to my bed on her desk. My contractions got more and on 16th at around 9am that is when another doctor came to check on me. He explained that he will rapture my uterus and that would help speed the contractions. Since that doctor did that i was in more pain, my husband was next to me, asking anything from a nurse took ages to have it done. After hours of pain and no nurse bothering to assist one nurse said they could  give me medication to ease the pain and we agreed. Going for that medicine took almost an hour and she came back with no medicine and no apology. I was in so much pain and i even  did not have the energy to complain, its my husband who had to go to the pharmacy and demand for that. The whole day i was in pain so at around 6pm a nurse who was very rude came to check my baby’s heart beat and she said it was low. We asked her what was wrong but she could not explain so she called a doctor who said i have to undergo an emergency CS. After being in pain for more than15hours they now decided to have a CS done, I agreed for the sake of my baby!

So the doctor said they have to prepare the Operation room for me. My husband wanted to come to the  Operation Room(OR) with me but the doctor said that its not allowed,I was really angry about it cos I  wanted him to welcome our baby in the world. The doctor said that he needs a consent from another doctor who was not in so that they can allow my husband to the OR. This made me so upset but i was  in so much pain and i could not even talk, my husband insisted that he wants to come in the OR but they just took him round and round, it took them around an hour to prepare the room for me and i was wheeled in,they told my hubby to wait a bit by the door so they could get me ready then he comes in but they lied. They shut him out of the OR and up to now i do not know why they did that!

My baby was born well after all the stress from an uncorporative and rude staff, i was taken back to the ward. My husband first saw our baby at least one and a half hour after she was born, no one was bothering to tell him what was happening. She was a hungry little girl and she was wailing and it took the intervention of my sister to have the nurses feed her, they were busy talking at the nurse station........later at around 10pm I saw my baby then the nurse took her to the nursery so i could sleep.

The next day at around 8am a nurse came and woke me up saying i have to walk to the showers and  take a  shower, I tried telling her i had a CS the previous night but she was rude, she told me that am supposed to walk as part of exercise and take a shower. I tried to get off the bed and the pain, but i could not manage to even take a step, i was dizzy and weak! Later my baby was brought to me and she had a bump on her head, seeing that we asked what happened but no one was telling us what happened! She also had an intravenous tube on her hand so we asked what was going on but the nurse said the doctor had instructed it done. So we waited for the pediatrician to come and explain all to us, we showed her the bump and she said the baby may have been dropped but no nurse was owning up and about the tube she said that my baby had an infection so they were giving her medication something they had not told me! They had also given my baby antibiotics without telling me why, its much later that i saw a nurse trying to give her another dose.

That whole day was another agonizing day so we decided with my husband its better i just go back home! The services at the hospital were dismaying, the nurses were rude and very unprofessional, it was worse staying there and especially with the CS. Getting a nurse took ages when you ring the bell and even when they came over they did not know what to do, since they were still giving me painkillers a nully nurse came over and inserted the tablet without any oil,i guess she did that intentionally cos i had been asking her several times when she will give me my painkillers as i was in pain,she was either not apologetic for that incident, then later another nurse came and asked me if my baby had already gotten the Tuberculosis shot! I was shocked cos how could the nurses not know what medication a patient needs? Its like they did not have any records so that is when I made up my mind to leave the hospital!

In the same ward i was in there was a mum who had a baby with a cleft lip and another mother got a healthy baby but the nurses put her in the incubator cos they assumed she looked jaundiced! The baby with a cleft lip died after some days due to the neglect of the staff. The next day i went to shower but the bathroom was unwanting, i showered in cold water cos apparently they shut down the warm water at 9am so when you are late you have to use cold water! When my husband came later to check on us we told the nurse that i would like to be discharged,she said we have to talk to the head nurse and clear the bill before that. So we waited for the head nurse,my husband went to collect the bill which was KSh.140,000! This was shocking cos I had paid for a maternity package,in the bill they were charging us for the gloves used on me and they even charged us for a wellness baby package(diapers and baby cream) that they give to mothers there! My husband asked the Finance Officer to explain the charges on the bill but he also could not elaborate what was billed! We told him that I wanted to be discharged and i needed a go ahead from him but he was just taking us round and round, we also spoke to the head nurse but she was adamant! I really do not know why they did not want to discharge me yet i was not happy with their services, we were getting upset about how they were ignoring us so we decided to just leave and no one was helping us in any way, the head nurse who was rude swore that i will not leave the hospital till i clear my bill yet on the bill its written that you have to pay it within 3days after its sent to you when you are discharged! She said that if we leave then my baby will stay behind till i clear the bill! That really angered us so we decided enough is enough, I packed all my stuff and my husband carried my baby ready for us to leave! It was a tussle cos they even called the security guy at the gate who tried to stop us from leaving and in that he hit me on the belly, they were all shouting and it was such a big scene so my husband left his Identity Card as a surety! Since all that he just insisted to speak to the CEO so that he could have it all explained!

I left the hospital with no painkillers so its a friend who is a midwife that advised me on the medication to take and since i had lost so much blood she gave me iron supplements. After some days at home we got a call from the hospital that that they would like to speak to us but we refused and insisted on speaking to the CEO since all the junior staff had been a disappointment! We managed to get to see the CEO, Dr Thenya and explained to him all that happened, he apologized to me on behalf of his staff and said that he will look in to that matter. That was around end of March,2010! Since that experience i did not want anything to do with NWH and i forgave them hoping no other mother goes through the same experience that i underwent! Its sad that they slap someone with the doctored bill that covers what you did not even use, the bathrooms there are totally broken and water leaking, the nursery for the newborn babies is in a sorry state with open electrical wires and dirt laying around, the beds in the wards are old and broken and next to my bed there was pieces of broken ampoules! The CEO later asked my husband to talk to his staff about professionalism and he promised to take action but its sad that the same issues still happen there till now! I always thank God that me and my baby made it alive out of NWH ! I guess the apology was just Public Relation since more grisly stuff happens there to date where babies and mothers die!

When a woman suffers under an establishment that is supposed to take care of her, then it can never be stale news! I am really bitter that instead of the hospital improving its services within the existing establishments, it still has the audacity of continuing with expansion…and I promise you, this is not going to do any good to our woman folk!