City hospital denies responsibility as woman dies of complications after surgery at facility

The city medical facility where a woman underwent cosmetic surgery six days before she succumbed to stomach complications has defended itself from the accusations linking the death to the surgery.

Through lawyer Danstan Omari, Omnicare Medical dismissed claims that the complications that led to Lucy Wambui's death are related to the cosmetic surgery undertaken at its premises on October 16.

The lawyer said the deceased underwent cosmetic surgery before she was discharged but chose to spend one more day at the facility and left on October 18 and went home.

Omari said Lucy went back to the hospital but it had closed hence proceeding to the Nairobi Hospital where she died four days later. She had undergone another surgery at the hospital.

A postmortem conducted by chief government pathologist Dr. Johnson Oduor, in the presence of the deceased's family and Omnicare Medical's pathologists, indicated that she died of perforations in her small intestines.

Omnicare Medical says perforations cause death within 12 hours of their occurrence therefore if the perforation that caused Lucy's death occurred at its premises, the patient should have died immediately after she left the facility.

Omari said more tests and investigations need to be done on three critical questions; on where, when and how the perforations occurred.

"She went to Nairobi Hospital where another surgery was conducted. So in essence there were two types of surgeries done in two different facilities. She was here for two days. She was in Nairobi Hospital for four days. They (the pathologists) have found out that the cause of the death is perforations of small intestines. Perforation is like a hole in the intestines," Omari said.

"In medical science, perforations can be occasioned by more than 10 causes. It can be caused by ulcers, H-Philori, intrusion to the intestines by an object, diabetes and very many medical issues including gastritis, and cancer."

The lawyer said the scientific explanation of what can cause perforation is a jungle and based on the postmortem report, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council closed the medical facility on Thursday.

Omari additionally dismissed claims that Omnicare also known as Body By Design is a spa, maintaining that it is a medical facility with requisite licenses from the relevant authorities.

"It is a registered medical facility certified as a hospital-level 3. It has all the requisite medical licenses and doctors' practising certificates. It has been in operation for almost 10 years. To have qualified to become a hospital, they went through rigorous vetting. In fact, it is being vetted to come to level 4 hospital," Omari stated.

"All the doctors who work in this facility are licensed by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPDU). They are equally licensed by the body that deals with cosmetic surgery or plastic surgery. Nobody operates here without that certification."

He stated that the hospital has been in operation for more than nine years and no single death has ever occurred in the facility and records are available to prove the same.

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• Body By Design
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