This archive report was first published on 21 August 2021.
US missionary Sandra Joyce Lichtfuss, 68, has been detained at a private hospital in Kitale, Kenya, over a Sh259, 465 medical bill.
Ms Lichtfuss, who comes from Pennsylvania State in the US, suffered a hip bone fracture after falling at her house at Gatua Estate on July 29. She underwent surgery at Goodwill Cottage Hospital, where she has been receiving treatment for five years.
According to Ms Lichtfuss, she was playing with her two dogs when she slipped and fell from a chair as she picked something from a shelf. "I slipped from a chair, hit my ankle on the table before I fell. I felt a sharp pain before hitting the floor," she said.
Ms Lichtfuss was subjected to orthopaedic management after the surgery, but the hospital only informed her of the medical bill at the time of discharge. "Nobody had told me there was a policy to pay medical bills before leaving the hospital. You don't treat someone like the way they did, especially a foreigner who is spreading the word of God," she said.
However, Dr Godfrey Onyango, who owns the hospital, told Nation.Africa that the patient felt offended when nurses asked her how she would settle her medical bill. Ms Lichtfuss has been trying to reach out to the US embassy to assist her but they are yet to respond.
Ms Lichtfuss has appealed to well-wishers to help her pay the bill, saying that she had contacted a friend in South Africa to help her pay the bill but she had no bank details by the time she was being discharged.
