Pregnant woman dies after being locked outside hospital gate

Pregnant woman dies after being locked outside hospital gate

A family is mourning the death of their 30-year-old daughter who died at the gate of Gombato dispensary in Kwale County while in labor pains.

The dispensary security officer allegedly refused to open the gates for Subira Hamisi who was accompanied by her mother on Thursday at around 5pm.

Ms. Hamisi is said to have died after waiting for close to two hours in the cold and rainy weather at the time.

Mwanasha Omar, the deceased’s mother, said there was no health officer at the time they arrived despite the facility having a maternity wing and a house to accommodate a nurse.

The family of the late Subira Hamisi now say their daughter was neglected as she had gone to the facility in the morning for antenatal checkup during which it was confirmed that she was due for delivery but was still sent back home.

“They knew that my daughter was going to deliver the same day she died but still sent her back home. Later in the day when we came back we found the facility closed and there was no one to open the gate or attend to her and she died outside the gate on the ground,” said Mwanasha.

When reached for comment, Kwale County Executive Committee member in charge of Health, Francis Gwama said the woman died outside the hospital hence the medics are not to blame.

“I cannot comment over such an issue, you can call the administrator if you want information over the woman’s death as what I know is that she died outside the hospital,” he said as he hang up the phone without further clarification.

Relatives also claim that when they returned home with the body, an ambulance came with two health practitioners who asked for the clinic book before telling the mother and another witness to sign it.

The practitioners allegedly left with the book promising to bring it back the following day, a promise that was never kept.

“We don’t know observations they wrote on the book before asking us to sign” said Mwanamisi Salim who signed the book together with the mother.

Residents strongly condemned the incident, terming it as an act of negligence.

“We cannot tolerate losing lives of innocent people out of medical negligence, the doctors are placed there and are paid by taxpayers money to serve locals,” said Fatuma Nchidzumo.

“Even if dispensaries are scheduled to close some times, there should be someone in case of emergencies,” she added.

The deceased leaves behind a 3-year-old daughter.

Tags:

KWALE Gombato dispensary Kwale CEC Francis Gwama Mwanasha Omar Pregnant woman dies Subira Hamisi

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