Minor sues doctor over treatment mishap leading to his amputation

Medical workers applied a plaster cast on the fractured hand of a nine-year-old boy too tightly making it decompose, a court heard yesterday.

The hand was later amputated. The boy has now sued the management of Kakamega County General Hospital, citing negligence.

The Standard Three pupil is seeking compensation over the loss of his hand, which was amputated above the elbow, leaving an eight-inch stump.

Through lawyer Emma Oduor, the boy told the court that his left hand got fractured when he fell from a guava tree as he was picking fruits in Malaha Village, Navakholo sub-county, on October 10, 2014.

Health workers who attended to him at Malaha Dispensary the same day told his mother that he had fractured his hand.

Since the dispensary had no X-Ray machine, the boy was referred to Kakamega General Hospital where a plaster cast was applied and he was asked to return in 10 days. However, after three days, the child complained of severe pain and his grandmother took him back to the hospital.

Upon returning to the facility, the hand was found to have started rotting and medics recommended amputation.

According to report tabled in court yesterday, Dr Jacob Maleche said lack of free flow of blood to the lower part of the hand made it to ‘die’.

“I received the young boy who upon perusal of medical documents confirmed that the issue could have been averted if necessary steps were followed. The plaster he was put on was more tightened leading to obstruction of blood to the lower parts of the hand,” he said in a sworn evidence.

Dr Maleche, a consultant surgeon at Kakamega Highway Hospital, told Chief Magistrate Bildad Ochieng that on normal fracture, it is recommended that a patient goes back to hospital within 24-48 hours to establish whether the plaster is in a stable condition.

“Professionally, any patient with a fracture undergoes straightening of the affected bone. If a plaster is used on any part of the body one is supposed to go back to the facility. This makes the doctor to confirm if the blood is still flowing and if it was tightened, it is loosened by cutting along the side,” Maleche said.

Artificial arm

He said the minor should be taken to a surgeon once in a while until he turns 18 since his muscles are still growing, making the bone protrude outwards and this must be trimmed.

The doctor further recommended that the boy’s parents buy him an artificial arm.

“This is permanent incapacity occasioned by negligence. Through an Act of Parliament, we are allowed to assess the degree of damages and that is how I ended up awarding him 70 per cent incapacity,” he said. The hearing resumes on June 6.