Man in battle with hospital over 'abandoned' patient

The husband of a patient Karen Hospital claims was abandoned at the facility has rejected a request to transfer her to a public hospital.

Michael Omusula has instead accused the hospital of lying that he abandoned his wife over a Sh23 million medical bill, claiming that it is the institution that went behind his back to file the suit seeking permission to transfer Jackyline Nelima to Kenyatta National Hospital or home-based care.

“As a family, we are opposed to the hospital’s application to transfer my wife. As husband and next of kin to the patient, I was never informed of the intention to transfer my wife despite the fact that I have been visiting the hospital since February last year when she was admitted,” swore Omusula.

He made the claims in his replying affidavit to a suit by Karen Hospital seeking the court’s permission to be allowed to transfer the patient to either KNH or home-based care.

The hospital claimed that since Nelima was admitted to the facility on February 16, 2019, after developing complications during a Caesarean Section delivery, they have not been able to trace her relatives while the bill continued to accumulate.

The hospital argued that due to the complications, Nelima was transferred to the HDU and since last year she has been undergoing physiotherapy and treatment for recurrent chest pain.

But Omusula in his response claims that the hospital was trying to cover up for their negligence that led to the complications, insisting that his wife was in bad condition and should not be transferred from Karen Hospital.

“My wife is admitted at the hospital because of brain injury attributed to the doctors’ negligence and not recurrent chest pains. She is not able to move or speak and is being fed using tubes. The hospital is lying that we have abandoned her to mislead the court,” he swore.

He said the family has visited his wife daily from the day of her admission with hopes that she will recover and were shocked to read in the press that the hospital had gone to court, claiming that they had abandoned her.

According to Omusula, they decided as a family to have their baby delivered at Karen Hospital and she attended the hospital for antenatal clinics where doctors confirmed that the pregnancy was progressing well.

On February 16, 2019, he swore that he took Nelima for the elective CS, which the doctors approved after doing medical check-ups to confirm the baby was fine.

After waiting for two hours, Omusula stated that he was informed that his wife had developed complications and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit. He was told she had lost a lot of blood.

“We were assured that she would be discharged after two days, but it later emerged that she had a brain injury and that recovery would take two months. But that became a nightmare after one month in the ICU and she has been in the hospital ever since,” he swore.