Nairobi West hospital denies abandoning top cop who died outside gates
The Nairobi West hospital was on Sunday forced to issue a statement in response to claims that a senior police officer died being left unattended at the entrance of their institution.
Hospital chief medical officer Dr Andrew Gachie dismissed the negligence claims saying Meru OCS Justus Ondimu was received into the accident and emergency unit and examined by a doctor.
According to Dr Gachie, the doctor confirmed Ondimu was declared dead on arrival and communicated the same to the next of kin.
This comes after the cop’s son shared a video clip inside a van outside the hospital, where he is heard pleading with staff to attend to his sick father who had earlier visited the facility for his radiotherapy session.
“So, one of the doctors came and said we are waiting for a stretcher for us to take dad in, then I was like is there’s only one stretcher in this hospital for you to keep someone in the hospital entrance for one hour to just check him out,” the cop’s son Caleb Ondimo is heard saying.
“Nobody is attending to my father, nobody is attending to him. He is still at the entrance but you are saying he is dead. How long has he been here? Will he die here?” he lamented.
The hospital said they take all incidences of this nature seriously and follow through with an internal investigation.
“We sympathise with the family, friends and those associated with the patient and are continuing to offer our full support including through counseling, as they try to come to terms with this sudden loss,” reads part of the statement.
The hospital said it will proceed with an additional investigation and any further comments will only be made after a valid conclusion about the matter has been reached.
However, the family believes that had the hospital promptly attended to their father the situation could have been different and he could still be alive.
The matter was reported to the hospital’s legal department who vowed to get to the bottom of the matter.