The government has began investigations into a suspected case of negligence at Shalom Hospital in Athi River, Machakos County where a woman was left to give birth at the facility’s reception area as nurses watched and enjoyed their tea.
Top Health Officials from the Machakos County Government were dispatched to the facility Monday morning to seek more findings on the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Officials from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board and Nurses Union also made their way to the hospital.
“Officials from my Government and the Kenya Medical Board & Nursing board will this morning visit the privately owned & managed Shalom Hospital in Athi River. We will not allow patients in any facility – Govt or otherwise – in my region, to be treated inhumanely. Watajua Hawajui,” said Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua on Monday.
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 the abandoning the woman.