A man is reported to have died after a few hours after donating blood at a hospital in Baringo.
Desmond Kipkoech visited Mercy Mission Hospital in Eldama Ravine town, Baringo County on Thursday, February 18 at around 11.50 am to donate blood.
The hospital’s CCTV cameras captured him leaving one of the examination rooms later on while staggering at 1 pm.
Thirty minutes later, the footage seen by The Standard showed him collapsing on a bench outside Room 15 at the hospital. He was then rushed to one of the emergency rooms.
Kipkoech was pronounced dead at 4 pm on that same day and his body where his body was taken to the mortuary.
Following his sudden death, the family is now demanding an explanation as to what might have happened saying that he was a healthy man.
Samati Kemboi who is the eldest brother to Kipkoech and a student at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) in Eldoret said that his brother had traveled to Eldama Ravine to visit his wife.
“We are shaken and devastated. Our brother went to donate blood to save other people’s lives but ended up dying,” Kemboi said.
Samati said he left his brother on that Thursday going to Eldoret but was called later on by Emma Koech, a nurse at Mercy Mission Hospital saying his brother had passed on.
The deceased's brother dismissed the claims by the nurse that the deceased had developed nausea and began vomiting before donating blood.
“The nurse claimed my brother was not fit to donate blood but in the CCTV footage, which the hospital allowed us to view, a laboratory technician is seen carrying donated blood to the storage room,” Sumati added.
The footages further indicate that the man had spent an hour at the ultrasound room where he was donating blood.
The family said they would like to know what transpired in the blood donation room and whethertheir kin developed some kind of complication.
“All we want to know is whether there was some form of medical negligence during the process since Kipkoech, as far as we know, was in good health,” said Samati.
A post-mortem examination report conducted at the hospital on Wednesday, February 24 heart-related and blood pressure complications could have caused his death but the report was not conclusive.
The matter has now been taken over by the Rift Valley Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). The regional boss Paul Wachira said the matter had been brought before them and investigations were underway to establish what exactly happened.
The hospital’s management had not commented on the matter at the time of this publication.
He leaves behind a wife Mercy Moraa and one child.
