Stephen Mburu And Eric Wainana
9 October 2008
Nairobi — Cobbler James Kamangu Ndimu may have died of complications caused by excessive consumption of alcohol, experts and his wife said Thursday
Mr Kamangu had reportedly returned home at about 8pm on Wednesday and went straight to bed saying he could not eat because he was drunk.
Liver disease
"He usually did not eat, supper whenever he came home drunk. He would eat the following morning. So I did not find it unusual after he said he would not eat," his wife Beatrice Mbaire said.
She said X-rays taken on Mr Kamangu at the KNH reportedly indicated he had stomach ulcers.
"Doctors asked him if he was drinker. He confirmed, and told them he even used to drink 'heavy stuff'. He promised to stop drinking once he got well," Mrs Kamangu said.
She said her husband told her on Tuesday that he would stop drinking. Dr Patrick Amoth, the medical head of Kiambu District Hospital, where Mr Kamangu was treated on Tuesday, said the shoe-mender suffered a liver problem.
"Mr Kamangu had visited Kihara sub-hospital after vomiting blood for 24 hours and even after a blood transfusion, he continued with the vomiting," he said.
"We advised him to go to Kenyatta National Hospital where he was to be admitted."
But he said a postmortem was necessary to determine the exact cause of Mr Kamangu's death.
Excessive drinking of alcohol is a major cause of liver disease.
Family members of the man from Gachie, who made headlines when he claimed to have been the husband of leading televangelist and assistant minister Margaret Wanjiru, said a postmortem test would be carried out before burial arrangements are made. Another medical expert said Mr Kamangu may have been a victim of a condition called "oesophageal varices."
The doctor, who did not want to his name published, said victims of oesophageal varices bleed excessively, leading to "sudden death."
Basing his argument on Thursday's media reports attributed to Mr Kamangu's wife Beatrice, the expert who works with the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse Authority (Nacada), said that oesophageal varices was mainly caused by long periods of "excessive drinking."
Blood veins
He said the condition causes blood veins along the oesophagus to get tender and inflated.
"Such inflated blood veins are similar to those that may develop on the legs. Those along the oesophagus are very delicate, and when they burst, they cause uncontrollable bleeding," the expert said.
On Wednesday, Ms Mbaire said her husband had blamed alcohol for his health problems.
She had said Mr Kamangu started vomiting blood at their Gachie home on Tuesday morning. The shoe-mender, whose last words were, "Go get the doctors, I'm dying", died on Wednesday at the KNH.
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