Man in KNH surgery mix-up trying to adapt to new life

Samuel Kimani who works at Pangani Girls says he is happy to be alive despite the ordeal. His head may have lost shape and has a big scar running across it. But 37-year-old Samuel Kimani is just happy he is alive.

Kimani was a victim of a mix-up at the Kenyatta National Hospital on February 19, when doctors mistakenly operated on him.

The doctors only realised they had opened the head of a wrong patient when they were unable to find the problem they were looking for.

Kimani, a cook at Pangani Girls High School in Nairobi, has just come out of the bed rest doctors had receommended.

Grateful to employer

The father of two is also grateful to his employer that they did not remove him from the payroll all the time he was away.

“The school never stopped my salary all that time, and I am grateful. They have also been giving me moral support,” said Kimani, who has just resumed work, albeit with some difficulties.

He adds: “The surgery completely altered the shape of my head. Aside from the scar around my head, where surgeons made an incision as they opened my skull cap, I have a depression on one side.”

“If you look closely, my head has lost symmetry. One side is bigger than the other, but that does not really matter. I am happy I’m alive and I will soon resume all my activities.”

Throughout that period, Kimani has been attending clinics at the neurosurgical unit at KNH, where doctors have been monitoring his recovery.

He may be back to his feet, but Kimani says he is yet to recover from the horror of the mistaken surgery.

Kimani, who has been recovering at his home in Ihithe, Tetu Constituency, in Nyeri County, says while he cannot take on heavy duties, he is just happy to be back to work.

Kimani, who was accompanied by his brother Amos Wachira, said the surgery changed his life completely.

“I cannot stand too much heat anymore, yet I have been earning my living in the kitchen, by cooking,” says Kimani.

Memory lapse

Wachira says they have noticed some changes in him. “For instance, he suffers from memory lapse. Sometimes he can ask you the same question he had asked and you answered,” he says.

It was one John Nderitu, 38, who had been scheduled for the brain surgery before Kimani was picked by mistake.

The two appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Health that recommended KNH compensates him.

“We are happy he has resumed work, but he has difficulties handling heavy duties. Cooking for 1,500 students is not easy. Recently, he complained of dizziness after work,” says Wachira.

The MPs want Kimani compensated for the risks he was exposed to and Nderitu for the delayed surgery. However, no action has been taken. The 60 days KNH had been given to pay them expires on June 10.