A family in Mombasa is mourning of a woman who died by suicide on Thursday at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Emily Owade, 50, and a mother of four, took her life by jumping from a balcony of ward one which is on the first floor of the hospital at 4am.
According to her firstborn daughter Sharlene Odhiambo, her mother complained of headache on Monday and was taken to Coast General Hospital for treatment.
She said tests were done but no disease was diagnosed. The doctors also ruled out that she could be suffering from depression.
“When we came for treatment on Monday, she had some memory loss and felt dizzy. The doctors gave her painkillers to relieve the headache,” Odhiambo said.
“After that we stayed at the waiting area waiting for the reviews and results from other departments. There was no form of treatment given because the doctors said no problem was identified from the tests results,” she said.
On Tuesday, Owade was taken for counselling sessions as advised by the doctors and was later discharged because she was fine.
The daughter said that at the time they were discharged, her worry was about one test, meningitis, which had not been done. She however says she tried following up on it but it did not happen.
Odhiambo says on Wednesday, the mother seemed confused, agitated, uneasy and violent and she took her back in the hospital.
“Upon arrival, my mother kept on shouting and running at the waiting area. She was given an injection which helped to calm her down before being admitted in ward one,” she said.
She said as they were waiting for treatment in the ward, her mother was given more drugs to put her to sleep but she did not sleep, instead, she again became agitated.
Odhiambo said at night the patient became violent and to keep her from leaving the ward whose door's locks were broken, they placed a bed by the door. However, the deceased opened the balcony door and threw herself down.
“Personally, I did not know there was a balcony and that the door was open. I feel like more could have been done to keep her safe. The hospital should not have admitted her at the upper floor because of her condition, that was very unsafe, I feel the hospital should work on that and be keen on the patient's conditions,” she said.
Odhiambo described her mother who was an interior designer in Mtopanga, Kisauni subcounty and a single mother of four after the death of her husband as a very jovial, joyful person and a strong woman saying that her death came to them as a surprise.
Julia Awich, her best friend of over 10 years said last week, the deceased kept sleeping even at their working place but she never complained of any illness until Monday when the headache persisted.
"My friend was okay and in good health although last week she was sleeping all the time but she never told me she was in any pain," she said.
Coast General Teaching and Referral hospital deputy chief executive officer doctor Wanjiru Korir condoled with the family of the deceased.
She said staff at the hospital did what they could to save her life by resuscitating the patient but she succumbed to injuries.
“The patient had mental issues and the person who was with her did not bring to our attention when she started running due to her condition, normally we sedate them when they are in that condition because this is not the first case of a patient with that condition,” she said.
The body was taken to the hospital's mortuary awaiting post mortem.
The incident was confirmed by Urban police station, Mvita subcounty OCPD Maxwell Agoro.
-Edited by SKanyara