Doctors alarmed by burn victim numbers

Truphosa Gacheri participates in a discussion during a fire safety and burns awareness session at the Kenyatta National Hospital. The campaign, which started on Monday and runs till Friday, is intended to educate the public on prevention of fire outbreaks. Sensitisation activities will be held in Kibra, Mukuru kwa Njenga and in the central business district. [David Gichuru, Standard]

“What happened to your son?” This is the question that brings Truphosa Gacheri to tears.

Ms Gacheri is overcome by emotions and sobs as she hides her face under the light-green Kenyatta National Hospital patient apron.

“He is not my son. I am his aunt. His name is Maxwell,” she opens up.

Gacheri regrets the circumstances that led to her sister’s death, leaving behind a three-year-old son who will for the rest of his life live with physical and emotional scars that remind him of the loss of his mother.

Gacheri says on the night of June 29, her sister picked up her son from daycare and went home as routine. She then decided to prepare dinner of rice using a heater, then dozed off.

“The rice cooked until it dried and caught fire, which spread to the wall socket,” said Gacheri.

Soon, the whole house was on fire. But Gacheri’s sister was still deep asleep. It was her neighbours in the informal settlement of Tel Aviv, South B, who came to their rescue.

“There was a mattress hanging on the roof, which caught fire and fell on the child, burning his head, arms and legs,” said Gacheri.

It is such horrifying incidents like the death of Gacheri’s sister that are now raising concerns among doctors, with focus on the increasing number of burn cases that are easily avoidable.

Awareness campaign

The doctors, together with other stakeholders, are this week running an awareness campaign in Nairobi on the dangers of fires.

According to data by the Burns Society of Kenya, there were 73,292 burn cases by May this year.

“And we are estimating that by the end of the year, these cases will be 170,000,” said society chair Shaban Saidi.

Last year there were 195,539 cases, in 2017 there were 147,454 cases while 2016 registered 172,299 cases. The challenge, said Dr Saidi, is that there are few specialists in Kenya to do reconstructive surgeries.

“For example, I am now taking bookings for August 2020,” he said. “But even if we train more doctors, the cases are still many and we just have to educate people on how to prevent them.”

Apart from the few specialists, the cost of treatment, care and reconstructive surgery for patients is high, considering that most fires happen to residents in informal settlements.

In Gacheri’s case, she now owes the facility Sh184,000 for her nephew’s treatment.

Benjamin Wabwire, who heads KNH’s burns unit, estimates the cost to be between Sh250,000 and Sh300,000.

In private hospitals the cost can stretch to Sh2 million.

“The challenge we have is that most of our patients do not have National Hospital Insurance Fund cover. But at times we have patients who we admit from private hospitals, who choose to be referred considering the high charges,” said Dr Wabwire.

He, however, noted that not all cases of burns warranted admission, unless those affected are infants or older persons.

Also, if someone has diabetes, epilepsy, high blood pressure, or sustains a chemical or electrical burn, they should be admitted no matter how small the injury is.

One may also not suffer physical injuries but due to inhaling smoke they have to be admitted and given oxygen therapy.

“Unfortunately, we have cases of people losing an eye or some other body parts, which ends up affecting their self-esteem,” the doctor said.