An expectant Stellah Khalechi, 25, accompanied by her husband Centric Isiaoh, went to Kitengela subcounty hospital maternity on November 28, 2022, hoping to leave with their firstborn child.
On arrival at the hospital, Khalechi was whisked to the maternity wing as Isiaoh went to the waiting room at the facility.
At 9 pm on that day, Khalechi called her husband and told him that doctors and nurses had told her the baby was not coming “very soon” and that he should go home and return in the morning.
“On Tuesday, the following day, I arrived at the hospital at 5.30 am. My wife had not given birth and I was forced to wait until 9.30 am when a nurse approached me and told me that my wife had been taken to the theatre,” Isiaoh said.
A doctor, he said, told him to look for Sh5,000 so the hospital can hire an ambulance to take his wife to Kenyatta National Hospital after her health became worse.
Isiaoh claimed that the same doctor told him that he will need to look for Sh100,000 if he wanted to save his wife.
When he told the doctor he had no such money, he was asked to look for Sh100,000 so that they can take his wife to another hospital and save her life.
This was confirmed by the Health CEC member Alex Kiloua, adding that it was not the Kitengeala sub-county hospital that wanted the said money but the hospitals that had been contacted.
On realising that time was against him, Isiaoh called his cousin and informed him of everything.
“The baby is with me now. What I am asking is, why did they put my wife through a Caesarean Section process without letting me know?" Isiaoh asked.
While responding to Isiaoh’s claims, the county executive for Health Kilowua said it is true they saved the child but the mother developed complications at stage two of her delivery.
“It was a complicated case of delivery that required immediate ICU services,” Kilowua said.
He said the woman had no NHIF card and money was needed.
“We played our part very well. The doctors and nurses did their best but unfortunately, we lost a patient."
