The Star (Nairobi)

Kenya: Helpless Nurses Watch Woman Die As Doctors Strike

Photo: Capital FM
Patients left unattended as doctors' strike persists (file photo).

A 36-year-old woman died at the Embu Provincial General Hospital, after she failed to get treatment because of the ongoing doctor's strike. Jane Wambogo was asthmatic and her condition deteriorated on Friday morning when her husband Michael Njue and her son Denis Gitonga rushed her to the hospital.

Njue and Gitonga who were unaware about the strike were after she died on the hospital benches as helpless nurses watched. The nurse said she could be handled by a doctor. "I am sure my mum would have lived to see another day if there were doctors at the hospital because we took her there on time but the nurses would not assist.

"The government and the striking doctors should resolve the issues causing the strike as quickly as possible to avoid further deaths," said Gitonga. The widower said after his wife's death he was forced to ferry her body to the Embu Police station to seek consent for moving her to the mortuary. "Nurses told me that I had to seek for consent from the police since there was no doctor to confirm she had died at the hospital and that she died of natural circumstances," Said Njue.

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