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Mater Hospital comes to rescue of baby with heart trouble


Mater Hospital has come to the rescue of a baby with a life threatening condition after the Nation highlighted her plight.

Three-and-a-half-months-old Maria Wayua has a complex congenital heart problem but cannot be attended to in public hospitals since doctors are on strike.

She required Sh1.9 million for the operation but Mater Hospital will now take care of the expense.

The baby, who has remained at the newborn unit of the Coast General Provincial Hospital, was taken to Nairobi on Saturday.

Mater Hospital marketing manager Boniface Muli said doctors and nurses there were touched by the baby’s plight.

PREPARED FOR SURGERY

“The child was assessed by a cardiologist to see if she could be brought to Nairobi. We decided she would travel on Saturday and be prepared for surgery on Sunday. The operation will take place on Monday,” Mr Muli said.

Well-wishers are contributing funds to M-Pesa paybill number 646633.

Coast Provincial Hospital offered an ambulance and a nurse to take Maria, her father Joshua Kyalo, 27, and other relatives to Nairobi.

“I thank Mater Hospital for what it has done. I don’t know if my baby would have survived,” Mr Kyalo said.

Dr Peter Aseyo Sore, a cardiac and thoracic surgeon, on Tuesday said the child should be taken to Mater Hospital “since Coast Hospital does not have a cardiac catheterisation laboratory”.

REQUIRE FACILITIES

The specialist, who is taking part in the strike, said public hospitals require facilities for doctors to carry our their work properly.

Maria and her twin brother weighed two kilogrammes each when they were born.

Their mother, Esther Kyalo, died 14 days later.