A report by the Daily Nation has revealed how doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital messed up by mixing two patients and performing a brain surgery on the wrong patient.
According to the report, the two patients had been wheeled into KNH unconscious last Sunday and a KNH Scan performed on one of them. “One needed head surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain while the other only required nursing and medication to heal a trauma swelling in his head, medically known as closed head injury,” the report by Elizabeth Merab said. “The patients were received and both admitted in the hospital’s Ward 5A, which houses general surgery and trauma patients without fractures.”
Apparently, despite the KNH scan the doctors did not realize the mistake until late into the surgery when they discovered that there was no blood clot as earlier diagnosed. “After consulting a senior neurosurgeon on call, the operating doctor was instructed to proceed no further, clean up the area and close the head,” the report further says.
the report says that the lead doctor who performed the surgery had examined a CT Scan that showed that indeed the patient had a blood clot.
KNH Scan
“The doctor examined a CT scan of the patient and his file before recommending surgery. Both showed that there, indeed, was a blood clot in his head. However, the scan was from the wrong patient and the team did not discover the mistake until after the surgeon was halfway into the operation.”
Following these shocking revelations that have put a sharp spotlight on the country’s leading public referral hospital, the hospital management issued a statement saying that they had suspended several medical practitioners who were involved in the surgery. They include neurosurgeon, the ward nurse, theatre receiving nurse, and the anaesthetist.
