The Pumwani Maternity Hospital has been dealt a major blow after the High Court ordered the hospital to pay Ksh7.5 million in compensation to a patient for alleged negligence by its staff.
In a ruling delivered on Wednesday, Justice Lawrence Mugambi found that nurses and doctors in the hospital acted in gross negligence during her 2019 delivery by delaying emergency treatment for more than eleven hours despite clear indications of a critical condition.
This lapse ultimately resulted in the stillbirth of her child and the unwarranted, non-consensual removal of her uterus, thereby violating her constitutional rights to the highest attainable standards of healthcare, inherent human dignity, and freedom from psychological torture.
The patient identified as LL in the court documents is a woman who hails from one of the slums in Nairobi. The court was told that she left her home at 7am on October 19, 2019, in severe pain and was rushed to Pumwani, where nurses assured her she would be taken to the theatre immediately.
However, contrary to the promise, the nurses are said to have repeatedly checked her condition, but she was left untreated until 3pm when her water broke without any intervention. It would take another six hours before she was finally taken to the theatre at 9pm.
Unfortunately, her child succumbed, and the attending staff only informed her the following day of the child’s passing on and the ultimate removal of her uterus without her consent. The nurses had allegedly later placed both the deceased infant and the excised organ in a basin beneath her bed.
While delivering the ruling, Justice Mugambi argued that the mother losing her baby and the ability to conceive again, due to the negligence of the hospital’s officers, violated her right to the highest standards of reproductive healthcare.
The mother told the court that the hospital’s actions caused her immense physical pain, permanent loss of reproductive ability, and severe emotional distress, stripping her of the joy of motherhood and subjecting her to lasting mental anguish and social stigma.
The court agreed with the mother’s position, holding that the hospital’s conduct robbed her of both her child and her dignity as a woman, and therefore warranted the award of Ksh7.5 million in damages.
“A declaration is hereby issued that the mishandling and deliberate neglect of the Petitioner by the doctors and nurses at the Respondent’s facility that thereafter led to the passing on of the Petitioner’s baby and unwarranted negligent removal of the Petitioner’s uterus violated Article 43 (1) (a) of the Constitution that guaranteed the Petitioner the highest standards of healthcare,” the court ruled.
There have been conflicting responses to the issue, with more patients coming forward on social media to disclose comparable experiences of purported negligence at Pumwani Hospital.
The hospital, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Nairobi county, handles between 50-100 normal births and 10-15 Caesarean Section births in a day.
