Neurological surgery milestone achieved at Nakuru Level 5 hospital

With a teddy bear for company and a sweet in her hand, you will not easily tell Jerious Wairimu has just come out of a delicate brain surgery.

It is only by looking at the stitches on her head that you realise her calmness is concealing what the 14-year-old has been through.

The doctors who attended to her at Nakuru Level Five Hospital described the operation to remove puss that had been caused by a fungal brain abscess from Wairimu's brain as unusual and intricate and one that only a handful of surgeons would perform.

The girl's grandmother, Wairimu Waite, said it all started with a headache for the teenager who had never had health problems.

Severe headache

"I brought her here from Thika, where she stays with her mother. She would cry uncontrollably because of severe headache. She could not eat or walk properly. Her left arm was weak,” said Waite.

She said they sought help from hospitals in Thika and Gatundu without success.

At firs doctors feared the worst — multiple sclerosis, a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord.

A scan had initially showed that Wairimu had a tumour that was affecting arteries in the brain.

After six days of thorough examination, it was decided she should go under the knife to remove the tumour that was slowly taking away her life.

However, the hospital had no surgeon who could carry out the operation. The facility had never received such a case before.

Luckily, there was a visiting surgeon from Kenyatta National Hospital. Dr Samuel Njiru, a neurosurgeon, happened to be in the vicinity on another medical mission at that time.

"I was at the hospital to carry out a minor surgery when I came across this girl. I looked at her and I knew her life depended on the surgery," Dr Njiru said of the surgery he described as complicated.

It took three doctors and five nurses five hours to open Wairimu's scalp during the procedure on May 28.

However, it later turned out that Wairimu did not have a tumour in her brain. “What looked like a tumour was actually fungal brain abscess that had caused accumulation of puss causing the brain to swell,” said Dr Njiru.

The surgeon said they removed half-a-litre of puss from Wairimu's head. The puss would have had a devastating effect on her had it not been drained out.

Five days after the operation, Wairimu's grandmother remained by her side.

“I could not leave her side. When she woke up, I held my breath. She looked a little confused. I continued with my prayers. I also thanked God and the doctors,” said Waite.

Joseph Mburu, the facility’s CEO, said the patient was out of danger after the surgery that has put his hospital on the national map. It was the first public hospital in the entire Central Rift to carry out a successful brain surgery.

“It was a lifesaving surgery and one of its kind to be performed at this facility with the help of a visiting neurosurgeon. The girl's condition was bad, but she is recovering,” said Dr Mburu.

Dr Njiru called on authorities to help reduce the cost of brain surgery that is out of reach for many poor Kenyans. “The surgery costs around Sh1 million in private hospitals, but with the help of county governments, the cost can reduce drastically,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nakuru Level Five has installed a modern five-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a three-bed High Dependency Unit (HDU). It has also established a new oncology unit to enhance treatment and management of cancer.

“The oncology centre that we launched last week offers palliative care to as many as 30 patients per day,” Mburu said.

Health executive Jonah Mwangi said the county government had already employed an oncologist.

Providing chemotherapy

“The teams at oncology department are screening, diagnosing and providing chemotherapy and other services every Tuesday,” said Dr Mwangi.

Before establishment of the department, cancer patients were forced to seek treatment at KNH and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.

In a deliberate move to improve services, governor Lee Kinyanjui allocated a third of the county’s Sh15 billion in the 2018/2019 budget to the department of health.