Medical bill for son who died after hammer accident now at Sh8.7m

The late Martin Ngari, 26. [Standard] 

Martin Ngari, 26, was buying ingredients for supper one evening in his Zimmerman neighbourhood when a hammer fell on his head. 

The hammer fell from the fourth floor where a vacating tenant was removing his TV aerial. Mr Ngari was rushed to a nearby dispensary for first aid before returning to his house on November 25, 2021.

His sister Mercy Wanjiru was alerted and she rushed to visit him. He was vomiting and sweating profusely. They opted to go to Kenyatta University Referral Hospital, where a scan showed a clot in Mr Ngari’s brain. For a young man who had just graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree less than four years ago, life had taken a sudden unexpected twist for the worst. 

A week earlier, his mother Catherine Wanjiru recalls, Mr Ngari had called her. He had promised to put up a good business for her once he accumulated enough money. 

“He was not oblivious to the fact that I raised them and educated him to university level, despite being a single mother. He took every chance to appreciate my efforts,” Catherine says. 

After a surgical procedure to fix his brain, for six months he lay immobile. He was confined to an ICU bed, feeding and breathing through pipes. 

Mercy said, “Not once did I give up on him. I saw his resolve to fight, and that encouraged me. People in beds next to him were dying, but he held on. I ensured to observe the hospital personnel handle my brother to learn every procedure.”

She went on: “I Googled best wheelchairs and every other necessity with the hope that I could make him as comfortable as possible. I was ready to take care of him, incapacitated or not.” 

For the six months Mr Ngari was in ICU, Mercy admits now in hindsight, not once did he show signs of improving. Mr Ngari developed bed sores, and eventually, his body started swelling.

An additional pipe was inserted into his abdomen to drain excess fluids, and his sister recalls how he started bleeding from the eyes at one point. Still, through the ordeal, Mr Ngari would signal to his sister to show that he could hear her. 

“One Saturday morning, I visited my brother and found unusual hospital personnel at his bedside. I later learnt he was a morgue attendant,” she says. 

Mercy Wagina Wanjiru breaks down while explaining how she lost her brother Martin Ngare, 26, after a hammer accident. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard]

The hospital bill had accumulated to Sh8.7 million by the time of his death. The mortuary bill keeps accruing at Sh1,000 per day since his death on May 7. 

So far, the family organised a fundraiser but only managed to raise Sh150,000, which went to the hospital bill. Mercy and Catherine run small businesses and have long exhausted their savings. Social services organisations are yet to respond to their request to waive the bill. 

An official at the hospital who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media said the hospital has a social work department and a waiver committee that visits concerned families and checks background for proof that they are unable to offset the bill.

“The department can either come up with a payment plan or waive the entire bill.”

When asked if she had explored this channel, Mercy said they had only initiated the process last week, which according to the official at the hospital, “hasn’t allowed the hospital ample time to organise and visit the family”.

Mercy said the family is unable to raise the money. “Even the man who dropped the hammer on Mr Ngari’s head denied any financial responsibility for his hospital bill, telling us we took him to an expensive hospital.

“KU Referral was the nearest, and I only wanted the best treatment for my brother. The police instructed us to bury my brother and pursue the case afterward,” she says.

Catherine and Mercy described Mr Ngari as a peace-loving, kind-hearted and friendly person whose body now lies in the morgue a month after his death. 

“He suffered enough for the six months he was fighting for his life. Is it too much to ask to lay my brother to rest in Karatina? Maybe then, my mother and I will finally sleep at night,” Mercy said. 

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