How lengthy SHA clearance caused death of pregnant woman, baby at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital

On December 11, Festus Wambua was looking forward to celebrating the birth of his second boy at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital in Nairobi.

However, that never came to be after the hospital delayed to help his wife, Faustina Mbithe, deliver her child, leading to the death of the two.

"On Wednesday night, my wife started experiencing labour pains. I took her to the nearby privately-owned Umoja Three Medical Centre.

"They tested her and told me the birth canal was okay and she should enter maternity,” said Wambua during an interview on Thursday evening in their house in Umoja 3 Estate, Embakasi West Sub-county.

“I asked them whether I should pay for maternity using Social Health Authority (SHA) cover or cash. They said they do not accept SHA and I must pay cash.

"I paid Sh10,000 and went home to pick the clothes of my about-to-be-born child. When I went back, I found she had not delivered yet.”

Wambua sat upto 6am in the morning and from there, is when he was told she was nearing to giving birth.

However, 30 minutes later, they told him not yet. This forced him to call her friend Esther Mwongeli to be in the hospital with his wife.

“When Mwongeli came, I requested her to stay in the hospital and in case of anything, she will call me since I had been called to go to work,” Wambua told Saturday Standard.

He added: “At 8 am, Mwongeli called me and said my wife has been given a transfer to Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and they were going since it was an emergency. Reaching there, she called me again and told me they want SHA cover information to be attended to. I told her my wife’s SHA cover is active and they can use it since I had paid for four months. They insisted I sent Sh2,000 top up for her to be treated, which I did and relaxed knowing now everything is Ok.”

All this time, Mwongeli told Wambua his wife was just on a bed, no doctor attending to her. yet it was an emergency referral.

About two hours later, she called him, telling him that he should come quickly, since his wife’s situation was becoming worse and has been taken to theatre and put on oxygen.

“I took a motorbike and rushed at the hospital and doctors told me to wait. Aftera  few minutes, I was called in an office and told my wife has died together with the child,” said Wambua.

He added: “I am still asking, between SHA and my wife’s life, which is important? After all, SHA was active and I had even topped up with Sh2,000. I just need justice.”

Wambua said while in the office with Mwongeli, his mother and friends, they asked doctors what had happened but no one was responding to them but just kept quiet.

According to Mwongeli, they took like two hours to work on SHA clearance, opening file as Wambua’s wife continued to lie on bed unattended to.

“I decided to go outside to buy cotton since she was bleeding. After coming back, I found she is unconscious and had fainted. After fainting, is when now they took her to theatre to put her on oxygen which they didn’t,” said Mwongeli.

She added: "When I went there, I found they are putting her on water drip and few minutes later, they came out and started asking me who I was with, only to know my friend has died together with the unborn. I really struggled, it’s so bad she died due to their negligence just because of SHA.”

Catherine Musya, Wambua’s mother is at pains to lose her daughter-in-law and grandson due to doctors’ negligence.

“This death has really touched me that I became sick when at the hospital. This is his beloved wife and finding another woman to commit his love to her will be hard,” said Catherine.

She added: “It’s unfortunate that the doctors only took action of taking her to the theatre to put her on oxygen after the situation became worse. They even operated on her to remove the child without her husband’s consent.”

According to a female relative to the family and who is a doctor in a county hospital in Central region, as per the procedures and protocol, once the hospital receives an emergency case, they should have quickly attended to her first.

“The referring doctor normally makes a call to receiving hospital, explaining the state of the patient, what they have done to the patient and what needs to be done when the patient arrives there,” said the doctor.

She added: “Later, the doctor writes a referral and discharge letter to the receiving hospital. The Mama Lucy Hospital was called by Umoja Three Medical Centre but unfortunately the hospital didn’t act quickly. It was total negligence for keeping the patient for like 3 hours instead of saving lives of the two, they failed and this is a shame to us medical doctors and the family deserves justice.”  

According to the doctor, last week, another woman who is also their church member also died in the same circumstances like Mbithe.

Reached for comments, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital denied responsibility for the death, blaming the referring hospital for the delay.

"When the patient came, she was attended to immediately but unfortunately the patient died in the theatre due to the massive delay caused by the referring hospital because she came with second stage delayed labour, causing the fetal distress, thus causing uterus rapture and excessive bleeding," said a spokesperson on behalf of the hospital's chief executive officer, Dr Fredrick Obwanda, who was said to be on leave.