#DOCTOREDABUSE
On June 3rd 2009, my wife went for a self-request scan at Family Care Medical Centre at Phoenix House, Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi. She was four months pregnant at the time and the scan revealed that the baby’s heart rate was faint.
The medical Centre obstetrician/gynaecologist Dr. Stephen Maina, gave my wife the choice of an evacuation or another scan at a hospital of her choice. She chose MP Shah and was admitted the same day. Another scan was done by Dr. A. Khanda, which revealed that the baby had no cardiac activity. We were informed that the pregnancy was not viable and an evacuation was necessary. An evacuation of the uterus is a procedure where the cervix neck of the womb is opened up and the womb is emptied. This is done to reduce the chances of infection and to reduce the amount of bleeding from the vagina. Dr. Maina scheduled the evacuation for the following day, 4th of June. He performed the evacuation as scheduled. After the evacuation, he examined my wife and wrote a discharge summary on the same day.
On 10th June my wife went to see Dr. Maina for a review, she had many questions about what may have caused the miscarriage and he told her of a few possibilities. She was cramping and the doctor didn’t re-examine to see if the cervix had closed. Her immediate concern was if she could get pregnant immediately and how soon. We had decided to wait for a while before she could get pregnant again. We asked for contraceptive options and were given the pill (Nordette), which she was advised to start taking immediately. She complied and on that same day she started having very excruciating abdominal cramps. After three days -the Saturday of the 13th- we called and asked about the bleeding and the abdominal pain. He told my wife to buy SYLATE tablets, which would help to reduce the bleeding, and that the pain and bleeding were normal for any woman who has undergone an evacuation.
However, the bleeding and cramping didn’t stop even after taking Sylate. On the morning of 16th June, she began bleeding profusely. I was at work, my wife was at home alone and a neighbour heard commotions. She found my wife collapsed, in pain, and unable to move. She was rushed to Nairobi Hospital ER at about 1100hrs, bleeding heavily. One of the clots that came forth was actually the foetus. Another gynaecologist, Dr. Gachiri, examined my wife and recommended a second evacuation. She was taken to theatre and it was done.
On 17th June I went to see Dr. Stephen Maina for an explanation of what happened. He told me that sometimes during evacuations, not everything comes out and sometimes it has to be done again. Three friends, one of whom was recording the conversation, accompanied me. When Dr. Maina realized this, he became violent and kicked us out. He told us there was nowhere we could take him. That l should count myself lucky since my wife was alive and in his own words, “We take women to theatre and they die, that’s why hospitals have mortuaries.”
We reported the matter to Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist’s Board on June 26th 2009. We received a letter on 10th July 2009 informing us that investigations had begun. We heard nothing more for three years until we got a call sometime in 2012 informing us that a disciplinary board was being convened to hear the case. At the hearing, the doctor admitted the mortuary remarks and we were told that the verdict would be out in 21 days. It is now September 2015, six years since Dr. Maina’s incompetence nearly cost my wife her life and we are still waiting for the verdict.
During this process and after, we have come across many victims of doctors’ negligence and several other cases of deliberate cover-ups in malpractice proceedings by fellow doctors and KMPDB.
Some patients especially victims of gynecologist are hesitant to purse such cases due to the very private and sensitive nature of the incident. During childbirth doctors sometimes do Episiotomies, deliberate cuts in the perineum, which is the tissue between the vagina and the anus, it’s said the procedure eases childbirth. A family friend was cut so bad she had undergo surgery but she declined to file a complaint.
The medical board has only one office, in Nairobi, and to file a case you must come physically to file and pay Sh2000. You pay them to lodge a complaint. Kenya’s beloved humorist Wahome Mutahi walked into a hospital in early 2003 in what was supposed to be a minor and painless procedure, the anesthesiologist, blundered and he went into a coma from which he never awoke. The family sued the government hospital in 2004 and in 2015 they lost the case. 11 years later.
You may have seen Medical Board CEO Daniel Yumbya raiding and closing clinics with the media in tow. He closes a clinic today, never bothers to follow up to ensure it is never opened and the quack reopens to maim and kill again. After the media leaves,Mr Yumbya moves on to plan the next clinic raids which the script of media-in-tow during Yumbya raids repeat itself.
The medical board has made quacks the likes of Mugo possible. How many convictions of quacks has Mr. Yumbya secured? How many doctors, guilty of malpractice, have had their licenses revoked? With one Nairobi based office how does KMPDB serve 46 million Kenyans?
We would like the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist’s Board to publish members of their board. The board members serve as the jury in cases filed against doctors.
KMPDB should also have public forums for educating the public how to file a case, anonymous reporting, training doctors on medico-legal cases. I’m told Kenya has one medical-lawyer. (A medical lawyer is a type of lawyer who handles various medical lawsuits and other medical malpractice claims. Medical lawyers typically have extensive knowledge of medical laws and standards, as well as the guidelines that govern ethical and professional conduct in the medical field.)
It’s almost impossible to win a case against a doctor with a regular kind of a lawyer.
The reason we are sharing our story is so that other patients can benefit and learn from our experience. You can share your doctor’s malpractice story in the comments or the outcome of a complaint you filed with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist’s Board.
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