By Standard Reporter
Nyeri, Kenya: A 50-year-old single mother is ushering the Easter weekend in pain after a private hospital in Nyeri detained her son, 28, over an unpaid bill
A teary Mary Wanjiku King’ori says all her pleas to the Outspan Hospital to release the diabetic Gerald King’ori has fallen on deaf ears, even as his bill — following an admission on February 2 — continues to mount, and by Sunday stood at Sh247,000.
Hospital invoices she showed us indicate the hospital was demanding Sh178,382 from her after 45 days of admission on March 19.
The charges include nursing and bed fees, which the family claim could have been avoided had the hospital released the patient after he stabilised, following a dental operation in the hospital shortly after admission.
Other charges include those for the dental clinic, consultations, drugs, doctor’s fees and ward procedures.
Hospital receipts
A hospital source said the Chief Executive, Dr Macharia Kiruhi, was in Mombasa attending the East African Surgeons conference. He is the only one who speaks for the hospital, but Kiruhi did not answer our calls.
Ms King’ori, who is a subordinate staffer in a government agency, says her pleas to the hospital management to release her son pending arrangements to clear the bill had been turned down severally, and she is worried that the more the bill escalates, the more it will be difficult to clear it.
Hospital receipts show she has only paid Sh26,000. “My son has been diabetic since 1999 and we only took him to the private hospital after his sugar levels deteriorated on February 2 because of a tooth infection,” said King’ori.
She showed us a copy of a letter by her employer urging the hospital to release the son pending arrangements to pay the bill. But the letter was allegedly turned down by the hospital on the grounds that it “didn’t carry any weight”.
