Nairobi,KENYA:Doctors have come to the defense of a neurosurgery registrar who was suspended at the Kenyatta national hospital following a patient tag mishap that saw the wrong patient operated.
According to reports a patient who required nursing and medication to treatment to treat head injuries ended up having his skull operated on a procedure which meant for another patient who was suffering from a blood clot in his brain following the mix-up.
According to a statement seen by Baraka FM, the mishap was caused by negligence on the part of the ward nurses hence the suspension was erroneous and a victimization.
“On night of 19th February (about 11pm), a pt was brought to trauma theatre for craniotomy. Pt bore a name label on his gown, and all documents and images tallied with the pt label. Pt was received, as everything seemed usually in order. On exam in theatre, pt was confused ( GCS=13/15) and not able to coherently communicate. Craniotomy was done and by our colleagues, but noticed during surgery that brain seemed normal with obvious signs of an ICH- the indication for the surgery.” The doctors said in a statement.
The doctors alleged that when the neurosurgeon could not find the clot he called his colleague who also did not find the clot and that’s when he stopped the procedure.
“During all this time, the ward was called total of 3 times and confirmed identity of the pt on all occasions. In the morning (about 6am, 20th February), as the Dr ( registrar colleague) was preparing to write the OT notes, the ward called alleging that the pt brought in the night was a wrong one.” The doctors added.
The doctors have called on the hospital to address the failed system failure instead of punishing their colleague.
“As unit colleagues, we believe that while our friend may have exhibited some procedural short comings, the surgery was done on the wrong pt mainly because of wrong pt labelling by the ward staff. And as such slapping a suspension on our colleague is totally erroneous, victimizing in nature and unwarranted.
We hereby request all residents to converge outside the principals court as from 8am tomorrow to demand the suspension to be lifted unconditionally and kenyatta to sort out the system failure on their part. today it is him, we dont know who the failed system will nab tomorrow!” The statement said.
This comes just a day after the hospital said it had suspended four medical staff who included the neuro surgery registrar, a ward nurse, a theatre nurse and an anesthetist and issued them with show cause letters to explain what happened.
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