Kakamega man cries for justice after botched vasectomy

A 57-year-old man from Kharanda Village in Navakholo Constituency, Kakamega County is receiving treatment at the Kakamega Teaching and Referral Hospital after developing complications arising from a botched vasectomy.

Speaking to K24 Digital, Patrick Sambula Wanjala, a father of ten (nine sons and one daughter), said while sheltering at Kharanda Primary School after floods drove him and his family out their home, a healthcare worker in the county convinced him to undergo vasectomy as a way of family-planning.

Wanjala said he went to a medical clinic at Kharanda Village, where he sought the vasectomy services.

Vasectomy is a simple surgery, in which the small tubes in a man’s scrotum that carry sperms are cut or blocked off so that sperms can’t leave a man’s body and cause pregnancy. The procedure, which is performed in hospitals and health clinics, is very quick, and one can go home the same day.

Vasectomies are meant to be permanent — so they usually can't be reversed, doctors say. You should only get a vasectomy if you're 100 per cent positive you don't want to be able to get someone pregnant for the rest of your life.

“After undergoing the surgical procedure, the doctors at the health clinic gave me pain relievers. However, my manhood swelled and the pain won’t go away. My wife, thereafter, suggested I be taken to the Kakamega Referral Hospital for advanced medical care. While here (Kakamega Hospital), the doctors performed another surgical procedure on me. I am currently admitted, and I’m responding well to treatment,” Wanjala told K24 Digital.

The patient has urged the government to ensure the medical staff members at the clinic, where he first sought vasectomy services, are arrested and prosecuted for negligence.

“They should also foot the medical bills I would incur at the Kakamega Referral Hospital,” he said.