One-year-old baby sues IHK for negligence

Dec 16, 2015

Baby sues IHK


A baby who is accusing International Hospital Kampala (IHK) for letting her intestines perforate and the hitting her with a sh87m bill has sued for negligence.

The High Court Civil division registrar, Festo Nsenga, summoned the private medical care facility to file their defence before a hearing date can be fixed.

 "You are hereby required to file a defence in the suit within 15 days from the date of service on you of the summons," according to documents signed by Nsenga.

Elaina Nahabi filed the law suit against the hospital on Friday through her friend, John Wanyama Wangah. Nahabi dragged the hospital to court through Victoria Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Nahabi wants court to order IHK to pay her general damages resulting from its negligence and the pain she suffered, interest on the damages at 28% and cost of the suit.

She also seeks court's declaration that sh87.6m paid to IHK was a result of their negligence by misdiagnosing her illness in time.

Nahabi contends that sh87.6m was riddled with exaggerated charges such as consultant fees of over sh150,000 per day (even on days when no consultation services were rendered). She pleads that due to the negligence of the hospital she spent 45 days in the intensive care unit.

She avers that on several occasions, the hospital failed to regulate the temperature of the incubator and fed her on poorly-dissolved milk.

According to court documents, On October 21, 2014, Nahabi was born to Wangah and Joan Wanyama and she was admitted to the IHK hospital as a premature baby but developed breathing complications on October 26, 2014 and was transferred to the IHK intensive care unit, where she stayed until November 5, 2015.
 
On November 12, 2014, Nahabi reportedly developed an extended belly which affected her breathing, and she was returned to the intensive care unit. Prior to this, the baby was not passing stool and was on fluids.

The following day, IHK employees diagnosed her problem as an infection common to babies, which diagnosis was immediately challenged by her mother, who is a surgeon. They refused to consider the mother's opinion and continued treating the ailment as a common infection in babies.

Meanwhile, On November 17, 2014, IHK medical staff ordered an abdominal x-ray to establish the cause of the extended belly but they were unable to establish it.

According to the suit, it was On November 19, 2014, that an ultra sound scan showed that the cause of the extended belly was the presence of obstructive faecal matter in the belly.

On November 21, 2014, Nahabi's mother prevailed upon the hospital to do an enema procedure both as a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for impaction treatment. It's at this which was carried out at Kampala Imaging Center. Upon reaching the imaging centre, the baby's intestine was found to have perforated.

 The baby, then still weighing less than 1 kg was operated on and stayed in the IHK intensive care unit for 45 days, accumulating the sh87m bill.

Eliana has twice been taken to Nairobi for corrective surgery and is doing fine, parents told New Vision.

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