Shalom Hospital nurse freed on Ksh.50K cash bail

A nurse at Shalom Community Hospital in Athi River, Machakos County, was on Tuesday freed on a cash bail of Ksh.50,000 after denying unprofessional conduct charges in a case where a woman was left to give birth on the floor of the facility as nurses allegedly watched and enjoyed their tea.

Nurse Edna Nyarangi was released on a cash bail of Ksh. 50,000 or a bond of Ksh. 200,000 while the second accused person, Thomas Ndolo (the hospital administrator), will stay in custody for 3 more days as investigations into the matter continue.

The case was set for mentioning on April 29, 2019.

The incident was exposed over the Easter weekend in a video recorded by a man who had taken his wife to the hospital.

According to the man, a woman in labour was brought into the hospital on a wheelchair and three nurses who were at the facility were notified that it was an emergency case.

The nurses are, however, said to have  continued taking their tea and did not attend to the woman despite her begging for assistance.

One nurse is reported to have told the woman to stand on her feet and it is at that point that she delivered with the baby dropping to the floor.

This sparked a scene, prompting one of the nurses to swing into action with one of them picking the child from the floor, as another moves to attend to the woman.

In the video capturing the incident, the man recording the video is heard scolding the nurses for abandoning the woman.

In a surprising turn of events, however, the woman who gave birth on the floor came to the defense of the hospital nurses and management saying there was no wrongdoing or negligence on their part.

Speaking to Citizen TV on condition of anonymity on Monday, the woman ironically blamed the man who recorded the incident saying he is the one who should have been arrested.

Following public outrage triggered by the viral video, the hospital’s administrator, Thomas Ndolo, was arrested at the facility on Monday alongside a nurse Edna Nyarangi.

A team of officials from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board and Nurses Council, who visited the hospital, said their findings confirmed there was negligence in how the woman was treated.

“It is our findings as a team that there were issues of negligence within the institution and how the patient was treated,” said Dr. Nelly Bosire.

The administration was given 30 days notice to comply with required health standards, failure to which its license will be revoked.

“The team before you is going to conduct a clinical audit to be able to fully establish the extent of the gaps within the institution…. The hospital is strongly reprimanded for the incident, that happened. In addition, the audit will make recommendations for which the hospital will be given 30 days to comply failure to which the board will be forced to withdraw its license,” added. Dr. Bosire.