According to knowledgeable sources the 11 or 12 foetuses/neonates that Sonko ‘discovered hidden’ were nothing of the kind. While local media will from tomorrow probably run with the story to malign and besmirch the medical community let me as FMCP tell you the truth. It’s less sensational than the crap Sonko and the gullible media has been feeding us.
Here are the facts:
According to city by-laws and the ministry of health guidelines, all deaths of unexplained causes or that occur at any hospital in Nairobi County that does not have a morgue must be registered at the City Mortuary for post-mortem. Pumwani does not have a mortury or even a cold room and all who die there, either mothers or neonates, must be transferred to the City Mortuary for a post-mortem.
Because Pumwani does not have a morgue or cold room, the hospital has set aside a simple room away from the public to store dead bodies, including foetuses, before they are transferred to the City Mortuary. Obviously, these bodies cannot be stored say in the reception area or the Cafeteria. Every week, dead bodies including those of newborns and mothers are transferred to the City Mortuary a least three times - it would be uneconomical to use a motor vehicle to transfer each body at a time.
Ideally, bodies should be transported to the City Mortury in body bags, which are basically special polythene bags that do not allow for the spillage of fluids or the contamination of the body if further pathological investigations are to be conducted. The same Sonko that was publicly berating doctors does NOT supply body bags to Pumwani. The doctors there have therefore innovated, and normally transfer the bodies of neonates to the City Mortuary in black polythene bags packed in cardboard boxes. It’s the most they can do in the circumstances.
It is not true that the staff at Pumwani tried to lie to Sonko that only one new-born had died. In fact that was the truth - only one had died on Monday. However, the other 11 bodies belonged to newborns or stillborns who had died since Friday. In the same period, Pumwani had delivered over 160 babies and handed them to their mathas safely. The dead ones in the romm Sonko ‘discovered’ were set to be collected to be taken to the City Mortuary later in the day.
The social media is full of speculation of what the ‘hidden foetuses’ were for. Some have speculated that they were meant to be sold for witchcraft, or to be exchanged with live babies for sale. Kenyans will be shocked to learn that such bodies of newborns have always been routinely destroyed in incinerators or buried enmass at Langata because their relatives never claim them. Once a new mother, usually poor and young, learns that her baby has died they usually take off. In fact, in many cases they take off even when the baby is not dead, such as when they have obvious congenital (pre-birth) abnormalities such as missing limbs. KNH itself also experiences this problem but has a more advanced medical ‘waste’ disposal system including two morgues (private and public).
It is not true, as some idiot suggested, that the newborns died after a certain ‘machine’ was switched off. They were the total that died in four days since Friday for various reasons. Newborns die everywhere in the world. The machine that failed (not switched off!) was actually a ‘steriliser’ -the one used to ‘clean’ medical equipment before re-use and not an incubator. Pumwani had already made arrangements to sterilise its equipment at KNH and Mama Lucy by the time Sonko stormed in.
You are unlikely to get these simple facts in your local newspaper tomorrow because as you know, we don’t have a credible media. I know these facts are less sensational than what you’ve heard, but as you know FMCP has a proven fidelity to the truth.
So, tuseme Pumwani ni safi kama @pamba from these allegations ama?
Lakini hapo kwa body bags wacha ufala, sonko si supplier wa body bags…lakini pia, una hakika watoi wamezaliwa tu kisha wakafa huwa wanawekwa kwa body bags kweli?
Wewe mzee umekuwa ukitetea mediocrity ya madaktari for long sana, tunakuonea 18. You once stated you have experience in the medical profession, it’s like you guys take an oath to defend one another from whatever allegations. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire my old fren.
Here, in keeping with your character, I would’ve expected you to call Pumwani management stupid or neanderthals for failing to budget for a mortuary all these decades. Which is easier, transferring bodies all the way to city mortuary or lobbying for a motherfucking morgue to be built?
This country is so fucked up.
For the record I am not a doctor. Having said that I am sometimes surprised that so many people don’t know how things work i the public sector. You expect a simple hospital superitendant to build a Sh500 million morgue? Not in a 100 years…And the current guys have not been there for, as you put it, decades.
Body trolleys wanakosa ni morgue watanjenga? Be serious please.
Mzae, hapo kwa 500 million naona ume-exaggerate kiasi. You mean to tell me that Umash guy and these other private funeral home owners invested at least 500 million, half a billion, on morgues? Tuseme ukweli bana, even 100 million is more than enough. For a county that has a 30-something billion annual budget, what’s so hard about setting aside a one time fee of 100 million to invest in a morgue. This is the most famous maternity hospital in the country, why is that so hard? Remember these government officials can spend up to 5 million shillings on a simple seminar, so mbona mortuary ni ngumu?
100 million itoke wapi? There’s no money for simple medical equipment, drugs or salaries and you’re talking about a morgue costing 100 million? Remember Pumwani is funded by the government under the free maternal health program which means revenue is nil! In summary Kenya is broke, yaani hakuna pesa.
Why did you rush to agree with and push a certain abortion theory that had also been advanced earlier?
Weren’t you also jumping into conclusions same as you are accusing sonko of?