Kiambu family pleads with hospital to release body of kin detained for 8 months

The body of Paul Magothe, 20, has been lying at PCEA Thogoto mortuary for the last 8 months. [George Njunge, Standard]

A family in Kiambu is pleading with a hospital that has been holding the body of their deceased kin for the last 8 months.

The family said they owe the hospital about Sh3.1 million in unpaid bills.

The body of Paul Magothe, 20, has been lying at PCEA Thogoto mortuary where the management insists the medical bill must be cleared first before it is released.

Magothe was involved in a grisly accident on December 17, 2023, at Gitaru along the Nairobi Nakuru highway.

The deceased was hit by a car, sustaining serious injuries, which he succumbed to later while receiving treatment at PCEA Thogoto Hospital.

A day after he had been taken to the facility by Good Samaritans, his mother Ann Wambui, visited and found him in the Intensive Care Unit.

Wambui said her son was in bad shape and in great pain. She tried to speak to him but his speech was incoherent. That was the last time Wambui heard her son attempt to talk. 

The deceased was a casual labourer at Lusigetti town in Kikuyu working mainly on construction sites. 

His mother who separated from her husband and has no meaningful employment, relies on manual jobs in Kawangware.

Wambui told The Standard that Magothe, her son, remained in the ICU for several weeks accumulating a huge medical bill, which his poor family has been struggling to raise.

At one point, the mother was forced to travel back to her rural home in Kinangop to persuade close relatives to help her raise funds to offset the accruing bill.

“I could not raise such kind of money. I had never imagined that I would be confronted with such a situation," said a teary Wambui. 

She organised a harambee in Kinangop, which raised a paltry Sh300,000, which she took to the hospital hoping she would be allowed to transfer her son to Kenyatta National Hospital.

Wambui said, unfortunately, the hospital demanded for Sh500,000.

“It was a traumatising period for me, with the situation made worse by frequent phone calls I received from the hospital's staff who were demanding money. Despite my pleas that I had hit a dead end, they wouldn't listen. My son later died and was taken to their morgue and more trouble hit me,” said Wambui.

Since Magothe's death, Wambui and her last-born daughter have made countless trips to the hospital trying to have the body released to no avail.

According to Wambui, the hospital is adamant the bill must be cleared. She has been told the other option is either she deposit a land title deed or car logbook equivalent to the amount owed.

Wambui says she does not possess either of the property. 

“They want me to take a title deed in order to release the body. I don’t have an inch of land since I stay in a rental house in Kawangware where my first born daughter pays the rent. My heart is broken, I have been stretched to the limit,” she said.

Wambui showing PCEA Thogoto billing that has accumulated to 3.1 million shillings following her sons hospitalization to the facility. [George Njunge, Standard] 

Wambui narrated to The Standard how she has been having sleepless nights over the matter. The body of her son is in the morgue; and she has no money - the woman is almost giving up.

“During Magothe's hospitalisation, I used all the little money I had, I borrowed so much, sold the little items, and here I am without anything more to sell and the hospital is still demanding that I pay 3 million shillings,” she said. 

The mother of three now says that the strain has caused her health and is appealing to PCEA Thogoto to show mercy by releasing her son for burial.

“My eyes have no more tears; I wish the hospital would help me get closure of my son’s death. The thought that he is still lying in their morgue accumulating more bill is very panful to me. How much pain am I supposed to absorb?” Wambui said.

Wambui said detaining the body is of no benefit to the hospital, but just an accumulation of bills on top of what they owe the facility.

“I will be relieved the moment I bury my son at our ancestral land. My heart would heal and help me move on," she said.

An official at the hospital who did not wish to be named acknowledged the matter but maintained that the bill must be cleared.