By Betty Luke
Two weeks ago, Ms Sara (not her real name) rushed her expectant daughter to Isiolo Referral Hospital for delivery after she exhibited signs of due delivery at 38 weeks.
The daughter, she narrates, would labour for four days with medics at the facility insisting that she give birth normally despite consistently pleading with them to have go through a Caesarian section (C-section) delivery.
“The health workers kept insisting that she must go through the normal delivery. She was in a lot of pain and I feared losing her and the unborn child,” she narrated amid tears.
She says the hospital kept prescribing drugs that she was supposed to buy at nearby chemists as the facility had allegedly ran out of stock.
Our investigations revealed that majority of the drugs were for stabilizing the patient’s blood pressure that kept shooting.
The medics would a week later agree to her plea, allowing her undergo an emergency operation.
“Hours later, a nurse informed me that the baby had died even before birth,” Sara shared.
Even before the family came to terms with the sad news, it was established that the woman’s wound was oozing pus as had ostensibly not been properly stitched.
The patient was, for the second time, booked for a minor surgery to rectify the issue.
Another patient Ms Amina* shared how she went to the facility after she started having contractions hoping she would get assistance only to be left to suffer.
Later that evening, the contractions got intense but the nurse in charge refused to help her out asking her to wait.
“The contractions got intense later that evening. A woman we shared the ward with called one of the nurses to help me but she ordered that I exercise patience. Immediately after she left, the baby came out,” she told The Press Point.
This forced other patients to intervene and hold the baby while another rushed to look for a medic to assist cut the umbilical cord.
Another patient revealed how she had been on induction for nearly a week with the medics insisting that she was not yet due.
The drugs, she said, had drained her family financially coming a few months after her husband lost hundreds of animals to banditry attack.
“My husband has spent over Sh7, 000 buying induction drugs. The drugs have not been helpful because they keep telling me to wait. I am in my fortieth week. For how long am I supposed to wait?” she posed while expressing fear for her life and that of her baby.
The patients also took issue with the conduct of some of the healthcare workers who they said were rude and did not offer a listening ear to the expectant women.
Sources intimated to The Press Point that several children have died due to negligence by the healthcare workers and despite the loss, parents were being charged Sh2000 to have the bodies buried.
They claimed the facility does not provide meals to the patients as required leaving hundreds of those admitted struggling to get food through their visiting relatives.
“For the days I have been here, we have been sharing meals with other patients. Some expect their relatives to visit but they fail. You cannot watch an expectant woman starve, “shares Ms Sara.
A nurse at the hospital’s maternity wing who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that in most cases, deliveries are carried out by the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) Isiolo campus medical students who are on attachment.
The medic noted that they were experiencing a myriad of challenges including long working hours and failure by the employer to remit funds for their medical covers among others.
This has seen nurses in some of the counties boycott work with Isiolo Referral Hospital announcing that it would not admit patients due to the strike that kicked off yesterday.
Deputy Governor James Lowasa who also doubles as the Health Executive was unreachable for a comment.
