There has been an outpouring of rage in the social media after a neurosurgeon at Kenya’s largest hospital performed brain surgery on the wrong patient.
The Kenyatta National Hospital, which admitted the horrific error has suspended the doctor, as well as two nurses and an anaesthetist, according to a statement on Friday, March 2, 2018.
Sicily Kariuki, the Health Minister, also suspended Lily Koros, the chief operating officer of the hospital, over the blunder. Lily Koros had suspended the four medics.
It was the latest scandal to hit the hospital in recent weeks, after allegations of staff sexually assaulting patients, and the theft of a baby.
An investigation by Daily nation Newspaper revealed that two men had been taken to the hospital on Sunday.
The two men were wheeled into the hospital unconscious. One needed head surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, while the other only required nursing and medication to heal a trauma swelling in his head, medically known as closed head injury.
Hours into the surgery doctors discovered there was no blood clot in the brain of their patient, and that they were, in fact, operating on the wrong man, the newspaper reported.
Lily Koros, The hospital’s chief operating officer, issued a statement announcing the suspension of four medics who were at work on that night. The hospital also expressed regret over the incident.
“The hospital deeply regrets this event and has done all it can to ensure the safety and well being of the patient in question,” read the statement from the hospital, adding the patient was “in recovery and progressing well,” Koros said.
Kenyatta National Hospital is Kenya’s oldest and largest hospital, and also serves as a teaching hospital.
“The management has suspended the admission rights of a neurosurgery registrar and issued him with a show-cause letter for apparently operating on the wrong patient,” Koros said.
The fact that Koros was referring to the operation as “apparent” is probably an indication that the hospital was unwilling to publicly admit the error, and also that some of its procedures may have put the welfare of patients at risk.
