By PAUL OGEMBA pogemba@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, December 27 2011 at 18:59
Posted Tuesday, December 27 2011 at 18:59
A widow has sued the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Board over the conduct of three doctors whom she blames for the death of her husband 10 years ago.
She also wants a court order to remove the complaint from the board to a magistrate who will conduct a public inquest.
Ms Tabitha Njeri Kihara claims that doctors at Nairobi Hospital neglected her husband, Mr Gordonson Kihara Karingithi when he was referred to the hospital in 2002.
In her petition, Mrs Kihara accuses the board of protecting either the subjects of the complaint or the institution that employed the doctors.
She claims the minister in charge failed to act “in the national interest” as he is required by the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act.
She is also accusing the Nairobi Hospital of employing doctors who failed to accord her late husband the requisite care and attention.
The petition is filed on her behalf by lawyer Gitobu Imanyara.
Events leading to death
In her application, Mrs Kihara explained that on January 4 2002, she received a call from Nairobi Hospital informing her that the husband was at the Accident and Emergency Department over alcohol intoxication.
“At first I was told my husband had ‘mixed beers’ and required only some detoxification. But I found him writhing in pain on a stretcher along the corridors and unable to speak,” she said.
The doctor on duty informed her that the inability to speak was as a result of the detoxification treatment and that he will soon regain full consciousness. He discharged him.
She took her husband home but later brought him back to the hospital when his condition deteriorated.
“He was admitted and attended to by three doctors. After sometime, I was informed that my husband was dead,” she explained.
Postmortem results established that her husband died as a result of hypertension.In her complaints against the hospital, Mrs Kihara claims if the doctors had admitted him and did a CT Scan, they could have saved his life.
She has also sued doctors Andrew Kibet, Josiah Ruturi Muthee and AK Ndonga.
She sued Dr Kibet for refusing to admit her husband, Dr Muthee for not being committed to his job by allegedly leaving his shift before attending to her spouse and Dr Ndonga for failing to conduct CT scan and taking too long to attend to him.
Ten years after filing the suit, Mrs Kihara says that she has not been able to get a reasonable explanation from the medical board.
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