Health officials from Kiambu County have come out defending the deaths that occurred in Kiambu Level 5 Hospital between December 2018 and January 2018 claiming that the babies were born pre-term.
On January 28 at around 9am, Ms Naomi Gathoni from Ikinu village in Githunguri was rushed to the Kiambu Level Five Hospital by her mother in-law, Rose Wangari, after she developed labour pains.
Three days later, Ms Gathoni delivered a bouncing baby girl, weighing 3.8kg through caesarean section.
According to Ms Wangari, the little one was in perfect health at the time of birth. “I personally held her and dressed her since her mother was still in pain arising from the operation which lasted four hours,” she told a local newspaper. The baby was then taken to the hospital’s nursery as the mother recuperated in the general ward.
The baby died three hours later along with other four babies.
Mortality Rate
“In the two months of December 2018 and January 2019, Kiambu Hospital conducted 1,703 deliveries. We had a total of 60 neonatal deaths out of which 35 were pre-term babies weighing less than 1.5 kilograms,” she noted.
“About 50 per cent of the pre-term cases were referrals from neighbouring private, faith-based and other public facilities. The survival rate for severe pre-term babies is very low worldwide,” she argued.
“It is worth noting that Kiambu County has an average neonatal mortality rate of 15 per 1,000 live births compared to the national average of 22 to 1000 live births,” she went on.
Her sentiments were echoed by the hospital superintendent Dr Jesse Ngugi who also exonerated his team from blame.
“We usually request for consent because we want the relatives to know that there are some risks … wound infection is a known risk after a caesarean section, and I cannot say it is as a result of any technicality used in the procedure,” Dr Ngugi said, specifically referring to Ms Gathoni’s situation.