Nairobi, KENYA: A team of doctors and nurses from the Kenyatta National Hospital have shifted their blame to confusion in the labeling of the wrong patient who underwent head surgery in the facility.
Appearing before the National Assembly Health committee led by Sabina Chege the team led by Dr. Michael Augustine Magoah told the committee that the mix-up, where on 19th of February a wrong patient Samuel Kimani underwent head surgery instead of John Nderitu might have been occasioned by wrong labeling.
Dr. Harrisson Ng’ang’a who carried out the procedure said that at 2:00 pm on the same date, the team was forced to push the surgery to later hours upon realizing that the patient required blood transfusion in order to undergo surgery.
He said that on 19 of February this year, the team did the surgery after confirming the name and labeling of the patient after the patient started showing signs of confusion.
“On the material day, that is 19th to 20th February 2018, we were in trauma theatre conducting neurosurgery emergencies, Winnie, my self and Dr. Mose Moraa, the duty is expected of us in trauma theater, to review the CT scans, to confirm the patient and the procedure .”Nganga Said
“However in this instance the patient was confused, so we confirmed with the name, that was in the patient label, this name matched with the name on the patient’s file, and the name of CT scans.The inpatient number on the patient label matched with the inpatient number on the patient file also we used phone records, the ward was called and confirmed that the patient was indeed John Nderitu at least twice.” He addded.
He said that the decision was made by Dr. Nelson Okedi who admitted and prepared the patient for theater, he said that they realized that the operation was in variance with CT scans thus referring the case to Dr. Dave Manga for further action.
He alluded that nurse’s team indicated that the operation was done on the wrong client.
The nurse who was on duty on the material day Mary Nyambura told the committee that she is the one who labeled the patient to undergo theater surgery after responding to the file and patient which was available.
Nyambura said that she was multitasking by concurrently handling patients and the reception on the material day.
KNH management is scheduled to meet the committee on the same issue.
