TO THE MEMORY OF LUCY WAMBUGU, A STAFF OF THE NWH WHO DIED GIVING BIRTH AT THE NWH.

I have just received this in my mail box and I can't stop the tears from running down my eyes! If anyone out there says that am acting out of emotions, then am not embarrased about the same. It was not God's will for Lucy to die, this is blatant negligence! The Nairobi Women's Hospital is planning to open a branch in Nakuru...how many women are they going to butcher before something is done????? Who shall listen to our pleas????

"I write on behalf of my late friend, Lucy Muringi Wambugu who until 30th September was a casualty nurse in NWH.

Lucy was 32 years old and was pregnant with her 1st child and had what all of us thought was an uneventful pregnancy till 30th September 2012. On that fateful day,  she checked herself into the facility after informing her friends that nikirudi tutakuwa wawili. What happened in the 27 hrs till 1st Oct 3.40 pm can only be conjectured but the bottom line is that we buried Lucy and her baby yesteday in her fathers farm in Ol Kalau.

Apparently she was made to labour for 24 hours and at one time she called someone and informed them that she was in a very tight spot and requested for prayers. I dont know at what point they decided to CS her but the attending doctor was all this time in the NWH (Adams) and came in 15 minutes into the operation...So pray, who was doing the operation???? The fate of the baby was even more mysterious...one of the nurses blurted out that the baby had cried and then total silence.

Preliminary PM results say she was anaemic!!!! Can you believe this??? the family mambers had been told that she had been transfused with half a pint of blood (half a pint????) and yet it was not entered in the discharge sheet.

The picture of Lucy with her baby in the same coffin will haunt me forever, bearing in mind that Lucy has helped me with my medical challenges for the last 1 year...outside NWH of course!!!!! The parents are of course devastated and they were just staring at the coffin in disbelief.

I want to restate what the priest who buried her told NWH... If it the will of God that Lucy should have died, its ok, we accept and God is going to heal us. But if it was due to negligence, somebody will pay, and not in the too distant future. It galled me to listen to message from the CEO being read in American English, our warning to staffers of the facility is that they are not safe just because they work there. If it looks rotten, smells rotten, then it is ROTTEN!! Get out before it is too late otherwise it will be a blight on your CV.

I hope I will not get threatening calls and emails because of this highlight, but I am feeling injured..."

REST IN PEACE LUCY, YOURS WAS CUT TOO SHORT TOO SOON!!!!

WHY YOU SHOULD ALL AVOID THE NAIROBI WOMEN’S HOSPITAL (PART 11)

I owe it upon all the victims of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital who sent me their stories to publish the same.

So far, nothing positive has come out of our campaigns, I had a few journalists contact me and I tried putting them in touch with the victims, I hope they are looking into the matter.

Some victims were totally adamant to bring out their stories but the situation is quiet understandable because maybe they belong to the lot who came to a mutual agreement with the management of the hospital, as one of the victims wrote and told me that she is barred from disclosing the terms of her situation any further after a settlement was made. Could this be the strategy Dr. Sam Nthenya uses when he says that he handles all the cases separately and individually? What a pity!

Today I post stories from a couple of victims, like I always say, for as long as one went through a terrible moment at the hospital, it can never be stale news!

1. Thanks alot for this...I happened to take my girlfriend there for delivery....It was a normal delivery, which i dint expect to go over 50,000,but for two days they charged me 77k..after complaining and following up it came to 60,000.

It is a cartel to eat money and even the CEO knows...it starts with the Cashier to the doctors, especially if you have an insurance cover,they will take you for C/S...they are so nasty.

Thank you for your email which has highlighted many pertinent issues affecting women and kenyans at large.

2. I am a victim of Nairobi Women’s Hospital and mine was ugly as it was my first child and knew nothing about children and the whole process.I have come to learn that no one can ever prepare you. I was admitted under the short martenity package at the hospital on the 27th of May 2007 to deliver my 1st baby. I was 25 years old then. a young excited girl. I attended 5 anti natal clinics at the facility and even went for a scan as was advised by the doctors. my due date was meant to be 21st of May 2007 and since it was my 1st pregnancy I decided to go for induction of labour. I packed my stuff and headed to hospital on the fateful night. i saw the doctor who allowed me to be induced into labour. I was admitted and the normal procedures followed. to cut the long story short ,my labour did not advance up to the 29th of May . That is when the real labour started. I was in a drip and in so much pain , I asked to see a doctor and the nurses just kept disappearing. finally they came and told me that the doctor was not available.
   
   A midwife came to check me, i was not dilated, so i was taken to the delivery room with a drip(the pain is out of this world) still going through and at one point was left alone with a friend of mine at the delivery room. The experience was not horrifying but scarey. I waited in the delivery room till a doctor came and had to be taken to theatre. that is not the end. I had an emergency caesarean  section and the baby was born with severe birth asphyxia . The child had to be transferred to Agakhan University Hospital ,he stayed in the i.c.u for 21 days and the baby was discharged. any way after leaving the child was referred to an occupational therapist who diagnosed the baby with cerebral palsy. I am now raising a child with cerebral palsy .
   
   That is my story.

3. Hi Suzane,
   Now, here is why I would join your course. Back in 2007, my sister used to go for clinics at Acacia. The gynae there had rights atr NWH. One fine morning as she neared her EDD, she
   goes for routine check up and is told the placenta has gone round the baby's neck. It was not a problem until a nurse there sarcastically asked 'na wewe ulidanganywa aje ukakuja CS?' we thought she was just being arrogant  and we hated her for those remarks. 2 years later, my siz was there again! This time, she opted for Aga Khan. She was very determined to have a vaginal delivery. But doctors at Aga Khan asked her how come she had been operated, they discouraged her against a normal delivery because the labour would rapture the earlier stitches. What the nurse at NWH had asked now got us thinking and we understood she may have had a point. A lady doctor interviewed my sister and asked; what prompted your first operation? Mi siz said, 'the placenta had gone round the baby's neck. How did the doctor know, did he do a scan on you? No, my sister answered. And so we learned that something was veeeeeeery wrong.

4. Hello,

My wife recently delivered our son at NWH Rongai branch. We chose this hospital due to the proximity of our residence but what we experienced there surely leaves a lot to be desired. First of all the prenatal visits were a nightmare; we used to spend not less than 5 hours each visit before we could see a doctor and mark you it is not because the hospital is busy, the staff are just slow, incompetent and minding their own business instead of attending to patients. Then came the day of the delivery, first a Dr Orina told me that the birth would be normal and that we should just give her time. Then after about 2 hrs they suggested that labor should be induced so she was put on the drip.   That was at around 8 pm. The nurses would check on her after every 2 hrs and inform her that she was doing fine and she was going to deliver normally. Then at around 4 am they decided that it was time so they took her to the delivery room and tried to force her to deliver normally even after cutting her vagina to no avail. That is when they decide that she was too small and that her hips could not allow her to deliver normally something they could have known all along if they were even 1 % competent. So they went ahead and did the CS and thank God the baby was fine. But now when it came to the time of being discharged, I was given the invoice and charges that were there were out of this world. It was alleged that she was attended to by 3 different surgeons namely Dr. Orina, Dr May Matilu, Dr. Peter Mutie with each surgeon charging a separate amount. I asked what is so difficult with a CS that it needed 3 different surgeons but I did not get any meaningful answer. I came to realise later that this was a ploy to make money out of unsuspecting clients.  Also the drugs, materials and visits by the doctor and nurses during the 3 days that my wife was admitted were inflated to the roof but there is nothing I could do about it. Then when she was discharged Dr. Orina prescribed a certain drug to control her blood pressure, everytime she took this drug she would get severe headaches and feel very dizzy to the point of fainting. I suspected something wrong and took her to a different doctor, when I showed the new doctor the prescription given by Dr. Orina he was amazed and very angry as it turned out that Orina had prescribed a dose twice as much as she should be taking and if she would have gone on to finish the dose it would have had adverse effects. This is very alarming and saddening that a "professional" who is entrusted with people's lives can be so incompetent. 

There are also allegations that nurses on duty at night usually sleep in the patients' beds but this I cannot substantiate since I have never been admitted.

I just hope that info this will put out what is happening inside that hospital and it will help my fellow Kenyans in making decisions. 

After sending out the complaints to the Kenya Medical and Practitioners Board, they sent out a form to be filled, requiring a payment of Kshs. 2,000/=, I didn’t understand how they wanted us to go about the matter, I totally did not understand the basis of that form.

My advice to you all, please be informed before-hand about what awaits you during delivery, talk to your mothers, your grandmothers to hear how they went about delivering up to 14kids without any hassle. Today, delivering has become like a silent massacre and no one is bold enough to bring it up. The obituaries on our local newspapers speak for themselves, what of those who never get to publish their messages? Let’s help save womanhood from perishing under negligent hands like those of the staff of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital.

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!