Until February 8, 2005, one Kenyan man, Jacob Ondeko was an ordinary young guy. He enjoyed playing basketball at St Mary’s School-a school in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, where he was a Form 4 student. He suffered a nasal injury while playing and was admitted to Nairobi Hospital for surgery.
He went in fine, but came out with a brain damage. This led to a lawsuit filed by his parents and after 14 years of agony and hopelessness the family of Ondeko , who suffered brain damage after a botched surgery at the hospital has been awarded 44.5m Kenya shillings ($440,000; £336,000) by a High Court, local media report.
Through a judgment read out by High Court judge George Odunga, it was ruled that The Nairobi Hospital was to be blamed for the negligence by a doctor at the hospital who failed to monitor Jacob Ondeko.
The operating surgeon, Dr Chimmy Omamo Olende, was absolved of wrongdoing in the judgement that also awarded Sh1 million to each of Jacob’s parents. Justice Odunga held that the injuries were not a result of the surgical procedure, but failure on the part of anesthetist.
“Jacob is hereby awarded a total of Sh43,460,000 being damages for pain, suffering, loss of amenities, costs of the minder, future medical expenses and loss of learning capacity to be paid jointly and severally by Dr Okutoyi and Kenya Hospital Association (Nairobi Hospital), Sh1,071,080 being special damages to be paid jointly and severally by Dr Okutoyi and Kenya Hospital Association (Nairobi Hospital),” Justice Odunga ruled.
The awards started accumulating interest on January 30, 2019, and will continue to do so until Jacob and his parents have been paid in full.
