Senators will on Tuesday visit Kenyatta National Hospital as the inquest into the death of baby Travis Maina continues.
The Senate Health Committee chaired by Uasin Gishu senator Jackson Mandago is expected to meet with the hospital’s CEO Evanson Kamuri to deliberate on the circumstances that led to the death of Travis.
The committee has been conducting investigations to dig into circumstances under which the two-year-old died after a fork jembe got stuck in his skull in early October.
The committee has already summoned the management of Kiambu county and that of the Thika Level 5 hospital as it seeks to unravel the circumstances under which the child was attended to.
The committee had during its earlier sittings noted that the mothers’ narration pointed to a case of negligence on the part of the two health facilities, hence the need for them to be summoned for further questioning.
According to the mother’s sister, Lucy Wambui, the child was taken to Thika level 5 hospital at 4 pm on the fateful day.
He was then taken for a scan to ascertain the extent of the injury before the doctors called Kenyatta National Hospital to refer the case.
They were given an ambulance which rushed them to KNH at 6 pm.
They were then made to pay Sh1,260 before the doctor who attended to them asked them to pay an additional Sh20,500, an amount they didn’t have.
The doctor, however, signed the admission forms after Wambui showed him a photo of the child and the condition he was in.
“We sat there until 10 pm that is when the doctor came and took photos and told us they have to discuss among themselves. He came back again in the morning at 8 am,” Wambui told the committee.
They were then told to prepare the child for theatre but that happened at 1 pm.
By then, the child had not eaten.
The trip seeks to among others identify the doctors who were on duty that day, and if possible have them face disciplinary action.
“It is unfortunate that a patient can go to a referral hospital and sit for more than 14 hours without proper care. KNH attends to referral patients so we expected them to do better but as a committee, we can’t apportion blame for now until we are able to listen to all the involved parties,” Mandago said.
The investigations also seek to find out whether the ambulance that took the child to KNH was accompanied by a nurse as per the requirement.
