I don't understand why he had to lose his leg

Kennedy Mumo and Hannah Njeri could not hide their joy when they had their first child. However, the joy quickly turned into a nightmare when a routine medical check-up went awry.

Baby Xavier Ambrose Mumo coos while grasping at imaginary objects in the air. Drooling on his feeder, he starts nibbling on the frayed fringes of his sweater. He then proceeds to stare at the stranger who has come to visit his home intently, before turning his attention to the sweater’s zipper.

But the baby is not well. And no, he is not ill – in fact, he is as healthy as the proverbial horse. What has his parents worried, though, is his left leg. Born able-bodied, Xavier has to contend with a physical disability for in place of his limb, is a grotesque stump brought about by an amputation he underwent on 21 January, 2019.  

 Kennedy Mumo, 28, and his wife, Hannah Njeri, 24, are at pains when I request them to explain what happened to their boy.

Hannah tells me that hers was a normal pregnancy. “The clinic visits and scans revealed that our baby was okay. When the time came, on 23 November, 2018, I gave birth without any complications. After a day, we were discharged from the hospital.”

Four days later, Xavier became feverish. Alarmed, Kennedy hailed a taxi and the couple rushed their baby to hospital. “He was not suckling, just crying a lot,” Hannah says.

The lethal injection

The doctor on call at the hospital examined Xavier, trying to get a diagnosis of what could be wrong. “The doctor said our son could have contracted pneumonia. He said he had to inject him on his thigh. When I asked what the injection was meant for, the doctor said it would help stabilise him.”

According to the parents, the injection and subsequent treatment Xavier received did little to calm him down. His parents became jittery, but before they could raise a finger in protest, Kennedy was asked to leave because visiting hours had ended. His wife and son were admitted. At home, Kennedy kept tabs on his family through phone calls.

 “The news coming from my wife was disheartening. It was made worse when she told me Xavier’s left leg had gone cold and numb. He was also crying incessantly but the doctor kept saying it was normal,” Kennedy recalls.

 Morning could not come any sooner for Kennedy. He rushed to the hospital only to find his boy in a worse condition than he had left him.

“My demands for an explanation from the hospital staff fell on deaf ears. I gave up and requested for a referral.”

 Dazed and confused, Kennedy made a call to the International School of Kenya, where he works, for assistance. “The school provided an ambulance. We rushed him to Gertrude Children’s Hospital.”

Upon arrival, the doctors examined Xavier. They said this had to be treated as an emergency case. By then, Kennedy and his wife had called their parents to provide emotional support. “Seeing the doctors connecting tubes into our boy and then rushing him to the ICU had made my wife delirious. I had to be strong for both of us.”

 Dead leg

However, the hammer blow was yet to come. “The doctor called me aside and told me, in a calm manner, that my son’s leg had to be amputated from the shin. When I asked why, he said it was dead!

I realised he was serious when I was presented with consent forms to sign.”

The bill for such an operation would cost upwards of Sh2 million.

“I called the doctor aside and asked him if there was a way we could save the limb. He said they’d try.”

Xavier was stabilised and transferred to a ward. The bill had already accrued to Sh1.5 million. A well-wisher, insurance and donations from friends and family helped offset the bill. “Immediately Xavier was discharged, my wife and mum left for Kitui County while I stayed behind to clear up everything. At the Kitui General Hospital, our worst fears were confirmed when the doctors said that indeed, his limb had to be amputated; there was no way it could be saved.

Kitui County Governor Charity Ngilu footed the surgery cost.”

From January this year, it has been a hellish six months for the family. For now, they have been seeking advice from orthotists about a prosthetic limb for Xavier.

“The specialist I spoke to told me we have to wait until Xavier is 10-months-old, and then we can fit the initial prosthetic limb. However, it has to be changed after every eight months because he’s growing older. He said we have to fit it early enough so that he can get used to it.”

Kennedy is also seeking to have Xavier registered with the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK). “I had traveled to Kitui County to have the doctor who performed the surgery sign me a letter to present to APDK.”

 Although the couple is ill-prepared for the future and still learning how to take care of a child living with a disability, they can only cling to hope; hoping that justice will one day be served for their boy.