Why every second counts: Court calls out KNH delay in emergency care as fatal error

The Accident & Emergency entrance at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi.[File, Standard]

Angelos Miano Muthee was involved in an accident where he sustained severe head injury on February 19, 2018, at noon. He was rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) as an emergency case with his family hoping that doctors would save his life.

However, this did not happen. What transpired at the level five hospital marked a slow but painful death while doctors and nurses watched. A plea by his family to have him transferred to another institution that could take care of him was rejected.

The court heard that a CT scan was recommended when he arrived at the hospital. Had it been performed in time, doctors would have discovered that the deceased suffered from a right temporal contusion, hemorrhage, left temporoparietal injury, and a non-depressed skull fracture that required him to be admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).