Outrage as Karatina Hospital delays surgery for patient lacking Sh200,000
Ms Dorcas Kianira whose surgery to correct her life threatening femoral shaft fracture at Karatina Sub-County Hospital has been shelved for lack of Sh200,000.
A 20-year-old woman risks having her fractured right leg amputated because she lacks Sh200,000 for emergency surgery.
Ms Dorcas Kianira was admitted to Karatina General Hospital on October 10 after she severely fractured her thighbone in a motorcycle accident.
Though hospital director Kelvin Kibaara acknowledged that Ms Kianira’s injuries amounted to an emergency and were supposed to be addressed within 24 hours, she continues to wait for an operation because she doesn’t have money for the procedure.
A broken thighbone, also known as a femur fracture, is a serious and painful injury and medics say it is also life-threatening.
The hospital is keeping the patient waiting until the end of October "to buy time to see whether her relatives will raise the surgical expenditure as we manage the fractured bones not to start growing into surrounding muscles".
Mr Kibaara said Ms Kianira has no health insurance that would cover the procedure.
She was supposed to be "fitted with a metallic implant to reunite her femoral shaft fracture that left it 100 percent disjointed" within the first 24 hours of arriving at the hospital, Mr Kibaara said.
The surgery has been postponed four times because she can’t pay for it.
"It is true that the patient's surgery has been overdue ... The implant is crucial for the surgery to proceed and it is good that they be available as prescribed,” he said.
Slotted her for surgery
“So far, we have slotted her for surgery on Wednesday (October 19), subject to the implant availability. Her kin should follow it up and get them from a reputable supplier."
Ms Kianira, who hails from a poor family in Tigania West, Meru County, was a domestic worker in Kirinyaga County when the accident happened.
Her mother, Ms Rose Kinya, told Nation.Africa that "we have been warned by medical experts that my daughter's leg risks developing complications that might result in its amputation from the hip joint".
Ms Kinya said she could not raise the Sh200,000 needed for the surgery – Sh150,000 for intramedullary nails, Sh40,000 for the surgical process and Sh10,000 for admission.
If the right procedure is followed, full recovery could take up to six months.
"I wish I could talk with Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga or my own Governor Kawira Mwangaza to come to my rescue. My MP is John Mutunga. I am devastated beyond measure," Ms Kinya said.
She said her daughter dropped out of primary school after becoming pregnant and by age 16, she had two sons.
"But she is an enterprising girl who even after she got married while underage and ran away from the abusive marriage a year later, she did all kinds of odd jobs to support me in the village because her sons lived with me," she said.
She said she was bewildered by the public health experience as "we had to remove my injured daughter from Karatina General Hospital to a private one for X-ray services and took her back".
Medical experts told Nation.Africa that Ms Kianira’s case requires immediate attention.
"The moment the medics here got the X-ray images showing that this patient's condition was an emergency, it should have referred her to a facility where she could have been treated without money," an orthopedic expert said.
Former Mt Kenya MCAs Caucus chairman Charles Mwangi said "it is against the Constitution to deny a patient medical attention on whatever ground, be it financial, tribe, regional, and the fact that this patient has been kept in a ward waiting for relatives to [raise the money she needs] is simply evil".
