This archive report was first published on 15 July 2019.
Published on July 15, 2019, a Kakamega Chief Magistrate's Court has directed the Medical Superintendent at Kakamega County General Hospital to furnish the court with medical documents of a minor who was amputated at the facility over alleged negligence of staff members.
The court has ordered the hospital boss to produce the patient's file, treatment notes, and discharge summary for the period between October 10 and November 7, 2014. The medic has also been directed to appear before the court on Wednesday, with the plaster room procedure book for the period in question.
The case involves Isaiah Olunga, a minor who was allegedly subjected to a botched procedure that left him with an eight-inch stump. The boy's grandmother, Mary Muronji, has sued the hospital's Board of Management seeking special and general damages.
According to the court documents, the boy fell from a guava tree at their Malaha Village, Navakholo sub-county on October 10, 2014, and broke his left hand. He was taken to Malaha Dispensary, but the facility recommended that he be rushed to the General Hospital for X-Ray, which Malaha lacked.
At the General hospital, the medics established that the hand had a fracture and a plaster had to be applied. However, the plaster was allegedly 'abnormally' tightened, causing the boy a lot of pain, and forcing his grandmother to return him to the facility on the third day.
Doctors who examined the hand noticed it had started to rot and amputation was the only alternative to stop further decomposition of organs. The plaintiff believes the problem was occasioned by negligence on the part of the doctor who attended him, leaving him with a permanent incapacity.
