Man blames doctors at city hospital for cousin's death

Evans Ayodo's burning anger in a post at 2:53am on Sunday is what woke up Kenyans on social media.

Just 14 hours earlier, his cousin Bernard Odhiambo, a barber, had passed on at Mbagathi Hospital in what is now being probed as doctor's negligence by the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board.

Daniel Yumbya from the board said he was aware of the allegations and that he had already received a report from the hospital.

Mr Ayodo is not upset that his cousin is dead. He is upset that 53 minutes that could have been used to save his life were used by doctors to surf their smartphones and scribble things on files.

After his social media post, he received an anonymous call threatening him for causing tantrums over his cousin's death.

In his words, the voice blustered on phone asking: "So you are the idiot who is disturbing my staff? Do you know who that lady you are talking to?"

He did not respond and instead returned the phone to the security officer who seemed to have clear instructions to manhandle him.

The lady in question is a young medical officer whose photo is doing rounds on social media alongside Ayodo's post.

The IT expert by profession had managed to take the photo, which the security person later instructed him to delete from his gallery.

"Little did he know that I had already posted one on Facebook and had another in my vault since I knew he would demand to have it deleted," he says.

Ayodo's woes begun on Saturday when he received a call from his cousin at 4:23 am saying he was not sure he would make it.

Since Coptic Hospital was far from where Bernard was staying, he advised him to go to Mama Lucy Hospital.

"I knew he was unwell as on Tuesday he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis and pneumonia and he was on treatment for both," says Ayodo.

But he later received a call at 7am that it was getting worse and he had to leave his house in Komarock to join them.

Ayodo says he does not blame Mama Lucy Hospital. In fact he says a nurse who drafted the referral letter did it hastily and even gave him the number to the ambulance driver but he was in Karen.

"So we just took a taxi and headed to Mbagathi where we arrived at noon. Even I have a post on Facebook at 12:03 pm."

He adds the best the doctor at Mbagathi Hospital did was to 'casually' read the referral letter from Mama Lucy Hospital, which she later gave her oral verdict as 'not critical'.