• Family says the woman was first attended to six hours after admission at KNH.
• An ultrasound conducted at Pumwani revealed that the unborn baby had died.
Image: /COURTESY
Portia Lavine, 26, was not worried about delivering her baby. She had planned to visit the hospital, give birth and return home.
Unfortunately, both she and her unborn child passed away, just hours apart. Lavine died at Kenyatta National Hospital on July 18.
Though admitted at KNH shortly after 10am on referral from Pumwani Hospital, her husband Victor said his wife was attended to six hours later.
“From 11am to 5.15pm, nothing had been done to her at KNH after admission, yet we came in an ambulance, with a report that she required immediate medical attention to contain her condition,” he said.
Lavine was referred after an ultrasound examination at Pumwani revealed that her 36-weeks-old baby was unresponsive.
Victor accused the hospital staff of openly declining to attend to his wife who was brought there in critical condition.
He said the hospital's negligence led to his wife’s.
The revelation that the baby had died shocked him and he pushed for a fresh ultrasound to be conducted at KNH.
“I requested the nurses at KNH to examine my wife again and give me a new scanning report to ascertain that indeed we had lost the baby, a report I was never given until my wife passed on two days later,” he said
Victor said it was not until his wife started vomiting blood after hours of waiting that a doctor stepped up to attend to her.
“This was the first time I saw a serious doctor come in to attend to my wife,” recalled Victor.
“They made an attempt to induce her that evening but I was not told whether it failed or not, and what caused the failure,” he said.
He said Portia was later taken into the Intensive Care Unit, where her condition worsened. But he was not made aware of the development until the following day.
“Over the night, my wife was transferred to ICU but I was not even informed despite leaving all my details with the nurses in charge who even assured me to keep in touch in case of anything.
“I struggled through the night to reach any person working at KNH to help me check on the status of Portia,” he said
Portia’s health under the care of the certified nurses at the hospital declined overnight leading to her death.
“The nurses took so long to attend to my wife and as I speak I still haven’t received any report from KNH as to what exactly happened to her.”
Victor said that after his wife died, he was sent to pick postmortem forms and a staff member at the hospital told him he was certain the nurses did very little to save his wife’s life.
“I don’t think I will recover soon. What makes me more emotional is the fact that my wife died a bitter person because of the pain she was exposed to.”
He said Portia never missed a prenatal visit and got great reports every time. All signs pointed to a healthy delivery.
Attempts to reach KNH for comments failed as the administration remained adamant in giving details leading to the patient’s death.
Portia’s body was laid to rest at her husband’s home in Nyakach, Kisumu county on August 3.