Family’s agony as Pumwani medics insist twins were stillborn
The father of the twin boys who died at Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi last week spoke of his agony, as he struggled over whether to bury his sons or run DNA tests on the bodies.
Mr Dedan Kimathi has been on the edge as the deaths have put his family on a collision course with the hospital.
The hospital insists the babies were stillbirths but the mother, Ms Jacinta Wanjiku, 24, says the babies were born alive.
She has since been discharged and is recuperating at their Kariobangi South home in Nairobi but the bodies of the babies are still at the hospital’s mortuary.
WANT CLOSURE
“I really want to ascertain that the babies lying in the mortuary are mine but I do not have the money to pay for the DNA tests. But with the turn of events, I do not mind the hospital disposing the babies because, what else can I do? The babies were not even named,” Mr Kimathi said by phone.
“I want closure not just for me, but for my wife. This is a very hard time for us,” he added.
On January 5, Mr Kimathi took his wife, who was in labour, to the hospital but the next day at 4pm he was told of the double deaths.
According to medical records, the babies were born on January 6, around 10.30am.
Ms Wanjiku is convinced she heard her baby crying, a claim hospital officials insist could have been a cry of another child in the labour ward.
The hospital said she signed a form admitting to have seen the bodies of the babies shortly after their delivery.
The family has another daughter who will be turning six this year.
CRIED FOUL
In an earlier interview last week, a devastated Ms Wanjiku cried foul after hospital told her that she had stillbirths.
She said: “The contractions were intense and I delivered the first child. They told me he had breathing problems. Shortly after, the second one came, and I heard his cry. But now, they are telling me that both my babies are dead.”
But Pumwani’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Lazarus Kumbi said that according to records and the attending midwife, Ms Wanjiku had been told that there was no fetal heartbeat.
He said the babies had already died in the mother’s womb and it is likely she is in denial.