The surgeon who operated June Wanza Mulupi on June 5 last year, was a trainee and did not have a license to conduct the operation, details have emerged.
Ms Wanza walked into Surgeoderm Healthcare Limited, a private clinic in Nairobi, to have her breasts enlarged and firmed up.
She was 35 years old and a mother of three, considerably healthy, and looking forward to leaving the clinic within hours.
But that was not to be as, a few hours later, and despite assurances by the surgeons that she would be fine, she developed complications that killed her two days later, leaving behind a distraught husband and their three children.
Eight months after Ms Mulupi’s shocking death, investigators have pointed accusing fingers at the three doctors who operated on her, as well as the management of Surgeoderm Healthcare Limited.
A shareholder in the clinic, Dr Ajujo was supposed to work under the supervision of another shareholder, Prof Stanley Ominde Khainga, who is also the head of the plastic and reconstructive surgery department at the University of Nairobi.
Investigations into the matter also revealed that, although already graduated, the anaesthetist, Dr Evans Charana, did not have a private practice or locum licence from KMPDB. He also had no professional indemnity insurance as required by law.
The crux of the investigation revolved around how, despite not being allowed to conduct any surgery unsupervised, Dr Ajujo went ahead and listed himself as the operating surgeon on Ms Mulupi’s admission papers at Surgeoderm.
Owing to the low number of plastic surgery patients at Kenyatta National Hospital, Prof Khainga had allowed Dr Ajujo to train in other facilities under his supervision, and that might explain how he ended up at Surgeoderm.