That was the beginning of a nightmare of a night. The police officer informed me that they had been called to an accident scene and the owner of the phone was one of the people rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
I quickly grabbed a jacket and the little money I had on me and drove straight to KNH.
Please note, I had never been to the place. I got to the casualty or ER reception and told them that I was looking for an accident victim who had just been brought in.
The ladies behind the counter did not bother to look at me or reply verbally. One of them just pointed to a mountain of human beings on the floor at a corner. I almost fainted! I was to look for him amongst people
with all sorts of injuries,
bleeding onto each other, some writhing in pain and some absolutely motionless.
First and foremost I had no clue what my brother was wearing. How was I to identify him. So I just shouted out his name. God was on my side. He was lying a distant way from the pile of human beings on the floor.
He was clearly in a lot of pain and disoriented. He just kept asking me about his friends who were in the same car. I had no clue where they were. I went back to the counter and asked for a doctor. The same ladies just pointed a finger to the cashier window. The cashier told me I have to pay 300kes before he can be attended to.
I thought, ok, 300 shillings is not too much, so I paid and went back with the receipt to the nurses station. Note: all this time no one has attended to him or the guys on the floor. After what seemed like a lifetime, a fairly young man walked into the nurses station and started giggling with the nurses. I tried to get his attention but he looked at me casually and said be patient, can’t you see am talking to beautiful ladies?
I wanted to explode in anger , but figured I still need his help. He finally turned to my brother and without touching him, just wrote a note and walked away. I finally figured , it was an X-ray request form.
Surely I have no clue where the X-ray room is, so I ask the nurses, they point me in the direction. The real drama is yet to start!!!!!! Shock on me as I find out that I have to physically carry my brother on to the trolley and push it to the X-ray room.
For those who know me, they know the size of some of my bothers . They could be playing for a team in the rugby World Cup. As I tried lifting this young man he belted out a sound of pain you only get to hear in a horror movie with Dolby surround . No nurse and no orderly bothered to help us.
A stranger who also needed medical attention volunteered to help me carry him. Then I had to cover him with my jacket since he was feeling cold. Then I get to the X-ray room and the radiologist is not in. I am duly informed that he had gone to nap and they have to call him.
20 minutes later he shows up upset that he was woken up. He asked me for a receipt, and I promptly show him the 300 shilling receipt . He looked at me like I had lost my marbles. I was sent back to the cashiers. Shock on me as I folk out 3000 shillings and with my receipt I scamper back to the radiology department .
The man looks at me with a straight face and instructs me to carry a 90something kilograms of my brother from the trolley to the X-ray bed and remove his shirt. For Christ sake I could be causing more harm moving the way I was. ( clipping my arms under his armpits to lift him)
Shouldn’t a trained person be doing this? So the X-ray is taken, I have to trolley him back to ER and come back for the negatives. 10 minutes later, they are ready. I pick them and have to personally look for the doctor. Woe unto me, doctor is missing so am told he has to be admitted to be seen by ward doctors.
At this point, it crosses my mind to call my other brothers for help. Then I think, that perhaps it’s dangerous for them to drive at that hour in panic. (How considerate of me) Oh! I have to pay 8000 kenya shillings to get him admitted. That the only money remaining in my pockets. So I think , ok! At least he will be in a comfy bed with warm sheets and not a cold metal trolley.
After paying , I push the trolley like I have been working at KNH as an orderly for eons.
His ward is on the 7th floor if I remember , so I head for the lifts. I press the button on the lift and wait. Ten minutes later am still waiting with my patient. Meanwhile I am feeling like an Arab in the arctic wearing nothing but a kanzu.
Then a cleaner came along me and unashamedly told me that the lifts had been cleaned and closed till the next day after the minister on Health’s visit. She had to find the place spotless clean.
Wooooiiiiii (in my native language ) , my wig almost flew off. I begged and begged to use the lift. Apparently if his bosses found out, he’d be fired. At this point the cold had gotten to my brains and I was talking in tongues. After much negotiations, he opened the lift and we proceeded to the 7th floor.
There’s a reception on the 7th floor where I hand the man behind the desk the file with receipts and an X-ray photo. Guess what? He tell me, there are no beds!!
Wait a minute!
- I have just paid 8000 bob for a bed. No one down stairs said there are no beds
- I can see very many empty beds from where am standing.
- And where is there another hip of people on the floor clearly in need of urgent medical attention ?
At this point I could not hold back, I almost tore this man with my acrylic nails. I was speaking in tongues. When a nurse came out to calm me down. He said without bribing him, we cannot get a bed.
My screams were now waking up patients lucky enough to get a bed. So he had no option but to give us a bed.
Note.
- The ward was half empty
- We had not gotten any medical attention yet, basic first aid or pain killers.
- His friend passed on after many hours of waiting for help.
- I talked to young boy perhaps 10years of age. He had come with a broken leg. A month later they had not put a plaster since he had no money. The leg was now permanently damaged.
I left KNH in the morning after my bothers came to transfer their bother to another medical facility. I asked myself, why work at a hospital if you have no passion for the job?
Who is in charge? They obviously have no clue what they are doing. All these people should be fired and jailed.
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