Spinal cord injury hospital is paralysed

By Lucianne Limo

Although it is the only one of its kind in Eastern and Central Africa, the National Spinal Injury Hospital is in appalling condition.

Situated in the leafy suburbs of Hurligham in Nairobi, the hospital specialises in spinal cord injury.

Injury to the spinal cord causes permanent disability below the level of injury. One could suffer paraplegia – impairment in motor and sensory function of lower limbs or quadriplegia — impairment and loss in motor and sensory function of both upper and lower limbs.

Medical Services Minister, Anyang’ Nyong’o, during a visit at the Spinal Injury Hospital. Photo: Mbugua Kibera/Standard

A visit to the hospital last week by the Medical Services Minister Anyang’ Nyong’o exposed the pathetic situation.

The stench emanating from the dilapidated wards as the minister inspected the hospital spoke volumes.

The building housing essential facilities like laboratories and the physiotherapy room are condemned and patients are crammed in small wards.

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The minister expressed shock at the conditions and wondered whether the Director of Medical Services was aware of the state of the hospital that was founded by the Cheshire family to accommodate, rehabilitate and resettle soldiers who returned from the Second World War with spinal cord injuries in 1944.

After independence, the Government took over Amani Cheshire Hospital and re-named it.

The 40-bed capacity hospital usually has about 200 patients on the waiting list.

Most patients are injuries in road accidents, fall from heights, gunshots and assaults.

Many patients are referred to the hospital, which is facing numerous challenges giving specialised care.

The theatre is small and the archaic equipment performs only basic investigation.

The hospital’ s Medical Superintendent Soren Otieno complains the hospital lacked a resident surgeon.

"The problem is that 50 per cent of patients with spinal cord injuries suffer from bed sores and without a resident surgeon, it is quite a challenge to manage them," he says.

Surgeons

Dr Otieno says the hospital depends on volunteer plastic surgeons to treat the patients.

The hospital also has limited physiotherapy space. "Patients require different type of equipment to stretch their muscles. The hospital needs five kinds of physiotherapy equipment," Otieno says.

The hospital does not have an incinerator which poses a major waste disposal challenge.

Otieno says the hospital was almost taken to court by the National Environmental Management Authority.

It now depends on the goodwill of Mbagathi and Mathare hospitals to dispose its waste.

The hospital, which depends on the ministry and well-wishers, lacks funds to resettle discharged patients and vehicles.

When patients are released, explains Otieno, the hospital uses two ambulances to take them home along with a team of nurses and physiotherapist.

He says the nurses train family members and neighbours on how to take care of paraplegics.

The hospital also provides a discharged patient with a wheelchair, special bed, crutches and a catheter for urination.

Otieno says 15 patients are ready to be released but the hospital lacks fund to resettle them. "Rehabilitation requires team work and a holistic approach. It is expensive," he says.

The Provincial Director of Medical Services, Maurice Siminyu, says the hospital currently receives Sh4.5 million annually from the Government for its operations, a shortfall of about Sh40million.

He says research by the Kenya Paraplegic Organisation, reveals that 70 per cent of patients die within five years after they are discharged.

"The common cause of death is wounds. It is very frustrating to take care of patients for more than a year only for them to die of basic things like bedsores," says Dr Siminyu.

A group calling itself Friends of Spinal Injury Hospital plans to demolish the condemned building and build new blocks and rehabilitate the main building at a cost of Sh60million.