Judy Muthoni, the mother of 2-year-old baby Travis Maina, on Monday, October 31, told the Senate Health Committee that doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital did little to save the boy's life after being injured while playing at the family home in Kiambu.
Baby Travis, who had a fork jembe lodged in his skull died on October 11, after allegedly waiting for too long before receiving emergency treatment at KNH.
At the hospital, Muthoni and her sister were allegedly subjected to harsh treatment by a medical doctor after arriving at the accident and emergency unit.
The boy had been referred to KNH from Thika Level 5 hospital where the mother had sought treatment.
Harassed at KNH
Muthoni's sister, Lucy, told the committee that the first doctor she encountered at the country's largest hospital shouted at her and demanded that she pays Ksh20,500 before attending to the minor who was in deep pain.
“The first doctor we encountered at KNH shouted at me and asked me to pay Ksh20,500 before Travis could be attended to,” Lucy told the Senators.
The Senate committee said all medical personnel who attended to the boy will be investigated.
Kiambu Senator Karungo Thang’wa said the probe will begin with medical practitioners at a local dispensary where the boy was rushed before being transferred to Thika Level 5 Hospital and later KNH.
The mother had told the committee that baby Travis received first aid at a Kiambu dispensary where the handle of the jembe was removed before being rushed to Thika for specialized treatment.
Senator Thangwa said the committee will seek to find out whether the medical officer who attended to the deceased is qualified and whether he followed all precautionary measures to avoid causing more harm to the patient.
The remarks were echoed by the committee’s chairperson Senator Jackson Mandago who promised to ensure no stone is left unturned in the investigations.
“We know parents might not remember the identity of doctors who attended to the baby but we will know when we go to Kenyatta. We will follow with KNH leadership, they cannot say they do not know them,” Mandago said.
“The law says two nurses should accompany a patient, we want to know whether nurses accompanied him. It is the responsibility of nurses to ensure when a patient is referred, they are received and properly transferred and documented. There must be documents that show that the patient was revealed,” the Uasin Gishu senator added.
KNH board said early this month that the hospital did its best to save the patient's life.
The family had claimed that the hospital failed to treat the boy's case as an emergency delaying an operation to remove the fork from the minor's head for nearly 24 hours, eliciting fury from netizens.
In contrast, KNH, in a statement said the delay was occasioned by clotting complications as doctors figured out how to stabilize the boy who was losing a lot of blood.
According to the hospital, clinical examinations and investigations on the patient, including CT scans and blood tests confirmed penetrating injury into the brain, brain swelling with bleeding and possible infection.
"The patient had lost a lot of blood and as a result, the clotting process was not occurring as expected, thereby, delaying the surgical procedure as this would have been dangerous to the patient," the hospital clarified.
KNH Board Chairman George Ooko said the boy passed on after developing complications while in theatre.
"In theatre, the patient developed complications and resuscitation attempts were futile," Ooko said.
