Inspiration
All is not lost for accident victims like Esther
By Winnie Osika
Unable to walk after an accident , Esther Nasimiyu , 26 , was admitted almost immediately upon arrival at the AIC Cure Kijabe Hospital .
She had not walked for about six weeks . She was also not able to pass urine normally and had a urethral catheter ( a tube in her urethra ) inserted to allow urination .
Esther was knocked down by a moving Public Service Vehicle ( PSV ) in Kware , Nairobi last May . She was hit from the back by a matatu which was on the “ wrong side ” of the road .
From the intervention of the passengers in the matatu , the driver of the PSV and the conductor were prompted to take Esther to hospital , but they instead took her to a chemist that was nearby and left her there , never to return again .
“ After they realised the situation I was in was worse than they had thought , the driver and the conductor told the person at the chemist that they were going to sort out a few things and come back , but they never returned . I could not even move my legs and my whole body was in pain ,” says Esther .
After being examined by the pharmacist , she was advised to go to hospital since her condition needed the attention of a doctor .
Speaking to Health Business , Esther ’ s aunt , Sarah Nasimiyu says that they then took her to Mama Lucy Hospital and later referred to Kenyatta National Hospital ( KNH ). She could only move round by the aid of a wheelchair , which was donated to them .
Esther was discharged from KNH only for her condition to worsen while at home . She was then taken to Kikuyu Hospital for further treatment .
Cases of hit and run in Kenya have become rampant leading to numerous deaths and disabilities , thus posing an economic burden to victims and the country as whole .
The economic burden of disabilities caused by road accidents cannot be overemphasized . Ms Nasimiyu , for instance , lost his job as a househelp – as she cannot move around well anymore , like she used to .
The national referral hospital , KNH which admits the highest number of road traffic accidents ( RTA ) victims has been strained under this burden .
The hospital admits at least 20 accident victims daily . Three quotas of this is as a result of road traffic accidents and at least five as a result of motor cycle accidents . This brings the total number of accident victims to at least 600 monthly , a number that the hospital says it cannot sustain economically .
The KNH has four dedicated wards for RTA victims . Each ward contains six rooms with a bed capacity of 192 .
Road accidents are the single largest causes of disability in the country according to the Kenya National Survey of Persons with Disabilities - 2008 . The survey also reveals that 4.6 per cent of Kenyans experience some form of disability .
Statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics ( KNBS ) Statistical Abstract 2015 show that over the past
60 November-December 2016