Why baby Satrin Osinya was flown to city hospital

By STANLEY MWAHANGA

Mombasa, Kenya: On Monday evening, Baby Satrin Osinya was transferred to Mombasa Hospital from Coast Provincial General Hospital where he was admitted on Sunday with a bullet lodged in his head.

An X-ray at the public hospital had shown that the bullet was embedded in the infant’s skull after piercing her mother’s back and exiting through her chest.

On Tuesday, doctors suggested that although the extent of the bullet’s entry into the skull or brain is not known, it is most probable that death or worse injury was averted when her mother’s body slowed the velocity of the bullet.

For more than 24 hours, Baby Satrin had cried uncontrollably without eating or sleeping due to what doctors said was an unbearable headache.

On Tuesday, he was flown to Nairobi for specialist treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), with both the national and Mombasa county governments taking care of costs.

The transfer itself underlines the inadequacies of Kenya’s medical system, given that very few private or public hospitals — with the exception of KNH — have the technical and personnel capacity to handle this type of delicate operation.

Meanwhile, Baby Satrin was moved to Mombasa Hospital to stabilise him clinically and prepare him for transfer to KNH under the watch of the sole neurosurgeon who is a retired naval officer and also a consultant at the private hospital.

At the non-technical decision level, overnight talks between Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia and Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho led to the to transfer of Baby Satrin to Nairobi. The decision to transfer the baby to Nairobi was based on the fact that although there is only one expert with the knowledge of this type of surgery, there is no equipment in local public and private hospitals.