Brenda Akinyi, 42, has pointed fingers at the Coast General Hospital for the death of her mother, Ursula Buluma, a Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) employee who succumbed to Covid-19 on April 2, 2020.
In an interview with Daily Nation on Friday, April 10, 2020, Akinyi stated that her mother had died because of carelessness and negligence by the facility's management.
“My mother has been having health complications which she has lived with for years, so when she called me on Wednesday, March 25, to go to her house in Jomvu to take her to hospital, I did not find it strange because it was not the first time I was doing it," Akinyi narrated.
She and her mother first visited Bandari Clinic, as is first required of KPA employees, and was later referred to Mombasa hospital after she was diagnosed with pneumonia.
“We went to Mombasa hospital on a KPA ambulance, where my mother was first taken to the emergency section and put on oxygen. However, she was removed from the intensive care unit and taken for what the hospital staff told me was screening, the same day,” Akinyi recounted.
Medical personnel at the facility, later on, informed her that her mother had to be isolated after exhibiting Covid-19 like symptoms.
Akinyi paid visits to her mother on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28, but was barred from seeing her on Sunday, March 29, after test results indicated that her mother was positive for Covid-19.
“I was devastated. I also demanded to know why my mother was not put on pneumonia treatment at Mombasa hospital as was directed by doctors at Bandari Clinic, but no one gave me an answer," Akinyi narrated.
Her mother, Buluma, succumbed to the virus on April 2, becoming the region's first Coronavirus casualty and was buried on the same day she died.
"I am yet to grieve. I didn’t see her body, nor attend her burial. I cannot wait for my quarantine days to be over so that I can mourn my mother; I will start wailing at the door," Akinyi painfully stated.
She was picked up by doctors from her home on March 31, taken to an isolation centre at Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), Mombasa, before she was later moved to Coast General Hospital on April 1, 2020.
"I have been in quarantine for 10 days today and I have not exhibited any symptoms. I have been in touch with my children and none of them has exhibited any signs, which leaves me very confused as to why exactly I am here," Akinyi narrated.
“I have not been given any results from the tests they did before they took me to KMTC and thereafter in this isolation ward. It is very frustrating because I am not aware of my condition. Am I on forced quarantine or under treatment?” She posed.
Akinyi's children had been quarantined at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) in Mombasa, before her family relocated them to Mombasa Beach Hotel, citing poor facilities at the government institute.
She stated that life under quarantine was tough, alleging that it was like she had been cut off from the rest of the world.
"I am in a self-contained room staring at the walls the whole day, without anyone to talk to or even an opportunity to bask in the sun," Akinyi stated.
Doctors on Tuesday, April 7, took fresh samples from her but are yet to avail her with results.
"I keep counting the number of days left. I cannot wait to leave this place and return to my normal life. I want to mourn my mother, but only after I finish fighting this battle," Akinyi stated, also expressing her sadness at the demise of former Mombasa Golf Club chairman, Mark Mbua.
