Pain of losing mother while in isolation

A woman whose mother died of Covid-19 completed her mandatory 14-day hospital quarantine only to face the reality of losing someone she loved so dearly.

It was an emotional scene at the Mbaraki Cemetery in Mombasa County on Monday evening when Brenda Akinyi visited her mother's grave for the first time.

Brenda, the first-born daughter of Ursula Buluma, a Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) employee who succumbed to coronavirus a fortnight ago, wailed uncontrollably after seeing her mother's grave.

She had been Buluma's caregiver and was given a clean bill of health by doctors at the Coast General Hospital after she completed her quarantine.

Brenda said she was a bit relieved after seeing her mother's grave.

Her two children and a househelp also went into isolation at the Mombasa Beach Hotel.

The process for discharge from Coast General Hospital's private wing nearly turned into a nightmare after she was handed a Sh131,830 hospital bill.

Brenda's mother died while undergoing treatment at the Mombasa Hospital on April 2 after she was diagnosed with Covid-19.

"My mum had complained of being unwell and we all are aware that she sought treatment for pneumonia," she said.

Brenda added that she was not comfortable with how things turned out as her mother lay in her hospital bed.

“My mother has been having health complications which she has lived with for years, so when she called me on Wednesday, March 25, to go to her house in Jomvu to take her to hospital, I did not find it strange because it was not the first time I was doing it," Brenda said.

She first took her to Bandari Clinic, which is the designated standard health facility for all KPA staff, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia and later referred to Mombasa Hospital.

“We went to Mombasa Hospital in a KPA ambulance, where my mother was first taken to the emergency section and put on oxygen. However, she was removed from the Intensive Care Unit and taken for what the hospital staff told me was screening the same day,” a weary Brenda said.

Medics at the hospital later informed her that her mother had been taken into isolation after she showed Covid-19 symptoms.

She said that health officials, in the company of armed police, stormed her residence where she lived with her two children, aged 16 and nine. They first went into isolation at the Kenya Medical Training College in Mombasa on March 31. 

"My relatives and friends, whom I shall remain grateful to, made quick decision to have my children and the househelp taken to Mombasa Beach Hotel where they still are in quarantine. They too were tested and are negative," she said.

Buluma died on April 2 and was buried the same day at the Mbaraki Cemetery in a ceremony attended by less than 15 people.