by Staff writer
Staff from nurses to the CEO have been suspended at a Nairobi hospital after the wrong patient underwent brain surgery.
One patient needed surgery for a blood clot on the brain, the other only non-invasive treatment for swelling.
But a horrifying mix-up of identification tags saw the wrong man operated on, reports say.
The doctors did not realise their mistake until “hours into the surgery”, the Daily Nation reported.
They then realised “there was no blood clot”.
The patient who was operated on is recovering, the hospital says, and an investigation is under way.
Regulators have demanded a report and plan to hold a hearing.
Social media users have expressed shock that such an incident could have been allowed to happen.
Twitter user Carol Radull wrote:
“How do you conduct brain surgery on the wrong patient? Kenyatta National Hospital has outdone themselves. Horrfying!!!!”
“If you have a potbelly, avoid Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH)…. You may end up at the maternity ward,” tweeted another user.
This comes only six weeks after the health minister ordered an investigation into claims new mothers were sexually assaulted at the same hospital.
As well as the allegations that new mothers were sexually assaulted in the hospital, a woman was able to kidnap a newborn baby there in February. The baby was recovered and returned to his parents a day later.
The flagship national hospital has also been plagued with reports of broken equipment, overcrowding, and long waiting times for treatment.
Its management blames insufficient funding and says lack of good hospitals all round Kenya has placed an unreasonable burden on the hospital.
