The court has ordered Nairobi Women’s Hospital to pay a mother and her 11-year-old son Sh54 million for negligence during childbirth, which led to the child developing celebral palsy.
Judge Msagha Mbogholi on Wednesday ruled that pain and suffering that the mother, Purity Kemunto, and the child had gone through deserved compensation.
The judge further noted that the mother and the child would not have found themselves in that situation had prudent and professional attendance been extended to them.
“The condition of the child is irreversible, he was wheeled into the court when the hearing first started and he appeared incapacitated, all limbs were immobilised and the blank stare from his eyes were telling,” the judge said.
Mbogholi said the injury that led to his condition has denied him everything one may call life.
He said in the event the awards are paid out, the money can reasonable be invested to benefit of the 11-year-old.
The child was delivered at the Hospital in 2007, but because of medical negligence by the staff, he developed complications and was later diagnosed with the condition.
Kemunto went to Nairobi Women’s to deliver and was induced into labour.
Kemunto said the hospital staff did not monitor her labour progress and she was left alone in the delivery room. This caused her severe, physical, mental and psychological anguish.
After two days, her labour had intensified and she demanded to see a doctor on call, but nobody was available to attend to her until a Dr Mutinda arrived and she was rushed in for a caesarean section.
When the child was born, he had suffered severe birth asphyxia and had to be transferred to Aga Khan Hospital, where he was admitted at the HDU. He was then moved to ICU, where he stayed for 10 days and another 14 days in the facility.
“The nurses did not monitor and or observe Kemunto as required and therefore could not alert the doctors that the labour was not progressing as expected,” Prof Kiama Wangai said.
Kemunto said she has undergone so much stress and pain raising her child, who needs extra care.
Two medical reports by Prof Wangai and Prof Erastus Amayo produced in court concluded that had the labour been monitored, the baby would have been born healthy.
Dr Amayo said the child suffered a cerebral palsy, likely from asphyxia and will remain dependent for life. In court papers, Kemunto argued the hospital and Dr Mutinda were guilty of medical negligence and failure to use reasonable care.