A 34-year-old woman is crying for justice after an operation at a private Mwingi town hospital last July left her barren.
Bendetta Makaa was pregnant when she went to the hospital and the doctor decided to remove her pre-term baby. The procedure was conducted but the placenta was left in the uterus as the wound was stitched.
“After the operation, I went home but shortly started experiencing serious abdominal pains. I was also discharging a thick black fluid through my private parts,” Makaa said.
She returned to the private hospital, but she did not get help, forcing her to go to Embu Level 5 Hospital two months later where part of her uterus was removed through a procedure known as subtotal hysterectomy to save her life.
By then the placenta had started rotting in the uterus.
Makaa told the Star on Tuesday at her Mwambui home in Mwingi Central, Kitui, that punitive action should be taken against the doctor for making her infertile. She is also demanding compensation from the private hospital.
The mother of two disclosed that she had filed a complaint against the doctor and the hospital at Mwingi police Station and given OB number 37/21/11/2019.
“The medics told me that I will never conceive again. I want to see action taken against the doctor and the institution for that irreparable damage,” she said.
Results of ultrasound on Makaa in mid-September at Embu Level 5 Hospital show that the placenta was still in the uterus two months after the operation in Mwingi.
“Patient was taken to theatre. Ex lap was done. Sub-total hysterectomy and D/C was done successfully,” reads part of the patient discharge report from the Embu hospital from where she was discharged on September 16, 2019.
Her discharge form from the private hospital indicated that she was admitted on July 11, 2019, and discharged on July 14 during which a decision was made to remove her pre-term baby as she was bleeding excessively.
A director of the Mwingi hospital said that that the facility used an "extremely qualified" doctor and there was no way such a mistake could have occurred.
She said her facility did everything possible to save Makaa's life, adding that the patient was on the verge of death due to excessive bleeding.
