The High Court has ordered Pumwani Maternity Hospital to pay Ksh7.5 million in compensation to a patient for alleged negligence by its staff.
The ruling was delivered by Justice Lawrence Mugambi.
The justice found that nurses and doctors in the hospital acted in gross negligence during her 2019 delivery by delaying emergency treatment for more than eleven hours despite clear indications of a critical condition.
Mukuru mother wins Ksh 7.5M lawsuit against Pumwani Hospital. Photo: Courtesy.
This negligence led to the stillbirth of her child and the non-consensual removal of her uterus, violating her constitutional rights to quality healthcare, human dignity, and protection from psychological harm.
The patient identified as LL in the court documents is a woman who hails from one of the slums in Nairobi.
The court was told that she left her home at 7am on October 19, 2019, in severe pain and was rushed to Pumwani, where nurses assured her she would be taken to the theatre immediately.
However, the nurses are said to have repeatedly checked her condition, but she was left untreated until 3pm when her water broke without any intervention.
It would take another six hours before she was finally taken to the theatre at 9pm.
Unfortunately, her child succumbed, and the attending staff only informed her the following day of the child’s passing on and the ultimate removal of her uterus without her consent.
Moreover in the ruling, Justice Mugambi argued that the mother losing her baby and the ability to conceive again, due to the negligence of the hospital’s officers, violated her right to the highest standards of reproductive healthcare.
