Patients seeking treatment abroad are indictments of our diagnostic capacity

We will lay young Emmy Chepng’etich to rest today, in the quiet village of Chebaraa in Chepalungu. Emmy was diagnosed with cancer of the blood on October 16. She died nine days later, as her parents made frantic efforts to fly her out to Texas, USA, for specialised attention.

Last Friday, we looked at each other in forlorn despair as her lifeless body lay in her hospital bed, her soul just departed. The feeling of defeat overwhelmed friends and relatives who had travelled from far and wide, to see her take an air ambulance to the US. It was going to be a long journey with a number of stop-overs for refueling and even change of ambulance, courtesy of AMREF. But it was not to be.