?The father of British aristocrat Tom Cholmondely has sued a city hospital citing refusal to release his son’s medical records.
Claims by Hugh George Cholmondeley against MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi, where Cholmondely died after undergoing an operation, has brought a new twist to the sudden death of Cholmondely in August last year.
He had undergone a minor, non-life-threatening hip replacement surgery.
At the centre of the dispute for medical records is then late Cholmondely’s Sh5 billion properties and the over 50,000-acre Soysambu ranch near Lake Naivasha.
Post-mortem results
The 81-year-old argued that the hospital admitted the post-mortem results could not establish his son’s death and after one year, they still don’t know what killed him yet they have refused to release the medical records to help the family engage an independent pathologist to establish the cause of the death.
"Our worry is that failure by MP Shah Hospital to release the records has put at risk my son’s multi-billion-shilling estate. We cannot process the death certificate to enable us take care of the properties according to his wishes,” swore Delamere in an affidavit filed at the Milimani High Court.
The late Cholmondeley was the great-grandson of the third Lord Delamere, one of the first and most influential British settlers in Kenya.
His father accuses the hospital of causing the family much anguish by refusing to let them know the cause of their son's death. He fears that his son’s estate may waste away with people claiming some debts.
“The direct consequence of the hospital’s unlawful action is that no letters of administration can be taken out in respect of the deceased for purposes of administering his vast estates according to his wishes,” said Delamere.
He stated that failure to release hospital records of his son had stalled the completion of post-mortem exercise and hindered the issuance of a death certificate, which would enable him process letters of grant to manage the estate.
Delamere narrated how his son, while on a holiday in Thailand in March 2015, sustained an injury to his thigh bone and had a successful operation before returning to Kenya.
In February 2016, the late Cholmondeley accidentally fell again, leading to fresh injury to the thigh bone, with doctors recommending that he should go for a minor, non-life-threatening hip replacement surgery.
Delamere stated that on August 17, 2016, his son went through a successful surgery at MP Shah Hospital and later transferred to Intensive Care Unit to recuperate.
Pronounced dead
“For reasons unknown to me, I was informed that my son’s condition deteriorated while at the ICU and consequently he was pronounced dead,” said Delamere.
In a bid to establish the cause of death, he stated that the family engaged and independent pathologist but the hospital refused to release the medical records.
“Given that the file exists in the hospital and has been seen by other people, their refusal to release it leads me to believe that they have deliberately neglected to produce it and continue to cause anguish to my family,” he stated.
He said that under the law, he was the only person with the rights to take care of his son’s estate and administer it in accordance with his wishes.
pogemba@standardmedia.co.ke
