Family's pain after girl with heart ailment left helpless

Empty ward of Kakamega county referral hospital where Doctors strike affected the operations on April 2, 2024 [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

The ongoing health workers' strike has left a family in Homa Bay in agony after a private hospital referred their 15-year-old daughter to a public hospital.

Their daughter, Josephine Atieno, has been undergoing treatment at St Paul's Mission Hospital.

Atieno was admitted on March 23, 2024, suffering from a suspected heart disease.

Her worsening condition forced medics at the hospital to refer her to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu or Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi for further screening and specialised medicare.

However, her father Naaman Aboge, and mother Millicent Akinyi are stranded after doctors in the referral hospitals went on strike.

Akinyi said her daughter fell ill a few weeks ago when she was in school but she did not know the condition was serious.

"My daughter is not sickly but she suddenly fell ill and became unconscious," she said.

The couple is worried that their daughter may not get specialised medicare due to financial challenges and medics strike.

Aboge said they have depleted their resources after paying the bill at St Paul's Mission Hospital.

"We are financially challenged because we have already spent a lot of money to treat the girl. This is aggravated by the strike of doctors and clinical officers in the country," he said.

He appealed to well-wishers to intervene and rescue her daughter.

This comes as patients who cannot afford services in private hospitals continue to suffer after medics in public hospitals due downed their tools.