Homa Bay governor Gladys Wanga on Wednesday made an impromptu visit to Homa Bay Teaching and Referral Hospital to enquire about the report concerning the death of a 19-year-old student.
Velma Auma Ochieng, a student at Nyajanja Secondary School, Kochia, Rangwe constituency lost her life at the hospital after a successful delivery in what family terms as "negligence" by the health workers at the facility.
The late student who was supposed to seat her KCSE examination this year left behind a baby boy who is currently under the care of her mother.
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"I have decided to do a follow-up and check on the unfortunate incident of the loss of Velma at our largest health facility due to postpartum complications after delivering a baby boy under a cesarean section," the Governor said.
Adding;
"I have had the opportunity to visit the family and condoled with them at home."
PHOTO/Habil Onyango
Wanga said she received the first of the three reports that were expected following the sad incident.
According to the Governor, the report contains details of every step that was taken by the healthcare workers during the delivery of the late former student.
She said they are still waiting for the report on the audit system where investigations are being carried out led by the board of the facility which is ongoing.
Wanga said the community autopsy report which involves talking to the community (households) to hear from the people who take care of the patients' report is also ongoing and once completed a comprehensive report will be filed.
She said they are still waiting for the family to recollect themselves and calm down following the shocking incident so that they can be in a position to witness the postmortem exercise for a complete report to be released.
"We are still waiting for the family to calm down for the postmortem to take place so that we can be able to conclusively find out the actual death of Velma," she said.
Wanga during her campaigns promised that her government will ensure that no mother would ever lose her life while giving birth.
She said in her three months tenure as the Governor, they have continued strengthening the health system's internal system to ensure that an effective and efficient health system is realized in the County.
She also promised to prioritize the health sector and ensure that a larger chunk of the budget goes to the sector to lift the status of all health facilities across the County.
"As we promised during campaigns, we still stand with our promise that no life should be lost by any mother while delivering at any of our health facilities and we are extremely serious about improving our health care service delivery at the Referral Hospital and other health facilities across the County," she said.
"That is why I have given my personal attention both to visit the family at home and also to visit the facility to personally receive a report from the County Executive Committee Member in charge of health and the team to know exactly what might have caused the death," she added.
According to a medic who examined the student, she was in her early stage of delivery and her cervix dilation was confirmed to be two centimetres instead of a ten-centimetre size which is normal for delivery and her dilation stuck at five centimetres.
She also had low blood pressure.
