Healthy Discourse

Up against Maternal Deaths

Shocking recount of Maria Immaculata Hospital, Lavington

O n Friday 10th December 2010, my now 9

months pregnant lovely wife Jackline Clarice
(pictured right) woke up with one thing in her mind,
going to hospital for delivery. She had done a survey
of most health facilities in Nairobi and had settled on
Maria Immaculata Hospital in Gitanga road, Laving-
ton.

Since I had an official engagement that morning, we

agreed that she was to be accompanied by her elder
sister, Mary, while I would join Jackie later in the
hospital. I was through with my business by 10 a.m. and
went straight to the hospital where I found she had
already been admitted. I found her resting on the bed
in a room next to the delivery ward.

We were both a bit nervous, for me with the thought

of being a father in a matter of hours. We sat on the
bed chatting and I even took several snaps of her as
we joked of how she looked in the hospital dress. We
were so fond of each other, we could talk endlessly.
I suggested we go inside the ward and see whether sup-
We talked about our plans for the New Year 2011; we
per had been served. We encouraged her to eat the
discussed Christmas plans and even talked about how I
mukimo and beef stew on the menu. It took the hospi-
was to take her for shopping the next Friday, 17 th
tal‘s security guys to convince us to leave as we were not
December 2010.
in a hurry to leave. She requested me to bring her por-
At around 12 noon, Jackie told me that she felt like ridge and fruits the following day. Jackie escorted us up
eating fruits. I rushed to Kawangware market and to the gate, I hugged her tightly.
bought the fruits which she enjoyed so much as we
If I‘d known that this was to be the last hug, I would
talked. Lunch was brought a few minutes past 1pm, I
have stayed with her the whole night. As we left, I felt
encouraged her to eat and she ate very well. That was
some kind of loneliness and even told Esther that I
to be her last lunch. Around 2.15 p.m., the medics
couldn‘t believe that Jackie would spend the night alone
requested me to leave so that they could ‗‘carry on
in a hospital while we enjoyed the warmth of our houses.
with their work‘‘. I reluctantly left the hospital, went
That night we talked over the phone and she told me
to town but by 4 p.m., I could not hold back my excite-
she had started experiencing labour pains.
ment so I went back to the hospital. I managed to get
the hospital some minutes before 5 p.m. I found her
I started thinking of organizing a big party that Sunday,
seated outside the hospital with her best friend
12th December to welcome the baby.
Esther. We enjoyed the sundowner together.
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 Healthy Discourse
On Saturday 11th December 2010, I woke up
early and instructed the house girl to prepare
porridge as I went to buy fruits. At exactly 9.37
a.m. just as I was leaving the house I received a
text from my lovely Jackie ―Sweetie am done at
7.50 a.m.‖ meaning she had delivered at around
7.50 a.m.
I got so excited I went running. I called her just
to confirm that I was not dreaming. However she
told me she had been bleeding since delivery and
I told her to ask for assistance. I called her
again after a few minutes and she told me that
the medics claimed the bleeding was normal. I
insisted that she ask them to do something
about it since no bleeding is supposed to be nor-
mal.
Traffic jam on Thika road that Saturday was at
its worst. It took me more than one hour to get
to town. All this time we were talking on phone
and I could tell all was not okay.
On getting to the hospital at around 11.45 a.m., I
could hear her crying. She was asking, in
pain‘‘Ako wapi bwanangu‘‘ so when she saw me,
relief was written all over her face. I assured
her everything would be okay. There was blood
and water suspended above her but not attached
to her body. It was at this time (over 3 hours
after she‘d started bleeding) that the medics
started attaching IV needles in an attempt to
give her blood. She was fighting for her life and
was struggling. She feebly told me ‗ enda uone
mtoto‘‘, amid cries of pain. Another nurse was
instructed to give her an injection that would
help stop bleeding.
The first thing I asked was, ‗‘Is there a doctor
here?‘‘ and one guy who was standing by her side
Page 24
looking confused confirmed to me that he was
the doctor (Dr. Mwangi). Meanwhile another doc-
tor, Dr. Were, came in and everyone seemed re-
lieved to see him. I asked him what was happen-
ing and he confirmed that she was going into a
shock and may never recover from it. Then he
added ―huyu ako na damu mingi sana, wacha im-
wagike‘‘.
I was shocked and wondered what he meant. How
could they just watch a patient bleed and do
nothing? I asked him what could be done to save
her life and he (Dr. Were) told me that they
didn‘t even have blood in their blood bank except
the one they were giving.
I watched as Dr. Were squeeze her stomach, she
cried in pain. By this time I had removed my shirt
to avoid it from being splashed with blood. I asked
him what he was doing, he didn‘t answer me, he
appeared clueless. He had asked one attendant to
bring the trolley for transferring Jackie to the
theatre.
There was blood all over; she had lost a lot of
blood since 8 a.m. Some was being drained into a
bucket, the bed was covered with blood, and blood
was gushing out from her birth canal like a stream
of water. I asked the medics why they could not
have put a piece of cloth or cotton wool to arrest
the bleeding...they ignored me, at this time, she
started shaking vigorously, I held her on my arms,
felt her pulse rate and sensed danger. Something
was terribly wrong!
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 Healthy Discourse

The nurses and Dr. Mwangi started leaving one

by one. I was only left with Dr. Were, the one
who had earlier commented that, ―uyu ako na
damu mingi sana,wacha imwagike‖. At this point I
realized she had passed away. I was left alone, I
started crying, I shouted myself hoarse, I
wanted to believe that I was dreaming and this
was not real.

I still cry up to date. I was not ready for what I

saw. Imagine seeing someone you love so much, a
person who had become part of your life dying.
Worse is the painful fact that her death could
have been prevented. What I saw was extremely
terrifying. It runs in my mind throughout the
day, every day. It gives me a lot of pain and an-
ger against those medics.
Earlier on, I had called some relatives and told
them to come over so that we could see what to
do. The first one to arrive was her sister‘s hus-
band, Mr. Karani, but it was too late. Others
came later. By this time, all the doctors had
nurses and fled away.
After taking the body to Chiromo mortuary, we
went back at around 5.30 p.m. to pick the baby.
We could also have lost the baby. She had not
been fed anything since being born at around
8.00 a.m. She was yawning hard, and worse still
she had not been given a BCG injection. We took
the baby to Getrudes, because she had started
sneezing. A doctor there was able to find NAN 1
milk which some nurses mixed for us and we gave
the baby.
To make matters more worse, the staff in this
hospital stole about Kshs. 13, 000 from Jacky‘s
bag in the ensuing confusion before we took her
body to the mortuary. Talk of stealing from the
dead.
I am still convinced that Jackie‘s life could have
been saved if these ‗doctors‘ and ‗nurses‘ were
willing to. Why couldn‘t they have arranged for
her transfer to another hospital once they real-
ized they could not cope with the situation?
There is Nairobi Women‘s Hospital in Hurlingham,
Nairobi hospital just nearby and Kenyatta National
Hospital not very far. From what I saw, am
convinced they did not try to save my wife‘s life.
I am still in denial. I cannot understand how
maternal death could claim my wife‘s life, in
Nairobi city of all places. This to me was a case of
TOTAL NEGLIGENCE, by both the hospital and
the medics in charge that day.

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All through this time, there was no sense of urgency I am hoping and praying that action is taken against
in that; it was not like we were dealing with an the hospital and the medics by the relevant authori-
emergency. Except for me, the others (doctors, ties.
nurses and the attendants) were just relaxed even
as she lay there with blood gushing out of her body.
Little attempt was made to save her life, that is the
saddest fact.

We buried Jacky on 21st December 2010. Life has

become worthless, nothing amuses me anymore, only
my daughter gives me a reason to soldier on. We
named the baby Jackline Clarice, (pictured right) af-
ter the mother she will never know.

Maria Immaculata Hospital to me symbolizes a

death chamber. I would urge anybody in their right
senses to avoid the place like a plague. They were not
even apologetic.

Am so pained that there are pregnant women still

visiting the hospital. Another death is going to oc-
cur. Should we wait until another mother, wife, sis-
ter, neighbor, colleague or friend dies?

This story was written by Moses Ndwiga, husband of Jacky, using his own recount of what happened. Mtoto pub-
lished the story in support of the ‘Up against maternal deaths campaign’ in Kenya.

If you know someone who has gone through a similar experience (of medical malpractice) at the same hospital or
any other, please contact us on freemtoto@gmail.com or ‘Up against maternal deaths’ facebook group.

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