Was school at fault for student’s sudden death?
A week after students reported back to school for the start of the first term, a student in a national school lost her life after a short illness.
Tracy Sylvia Namatsi, 16, a form three student at Moi High Schoool Kabarak fell ill on January 13 and was treated at the medical centre and discharged.
“On 13/01/2017 at about 3:20pm Tracy went to the medical centre for treatment having complains of body aches and hotness of the body. She was given antibiotics then observed for some hours. Later on she was released back to school,” read a medical history of her eulogy.
The first born in the Namatsi family had some tests ran on her and results showed she had a bacterial infection for which she was given antibiotics.
“On 14/01/2017 during the day she engaged well in school activities. At around 4:30pm she was taken back to the medical centre having collapsed while in class. At the medical centre, she convulsed and was put on oxygen. Several tests were done and it was established that she had severe malaria,” read Tracy’s eulogy.
The 16-year-old was referred to Evans Sunrise Hospital in Nakuru where the ambulance team took her and arrived at 5:30pm.
“The emergency team for the hospital had already been contacted and upon arrival she was received and quickly the team embarked on resuscitating her. She however started bleeding from the mouth and nose and she lost about 1 litre of blood. In the process the battle was lost and she was pronounced dead at 6pm,” concluded Tracy’s eulogy.
The Namatsi family accompanied by friends and a handful of parents from the school attended a requiem service at the Umash Funeral Home in Nairobi on Thursday.
The service united both Muslims and Christians in grief as they remembered the good moments they had with Tracy.
As the family embarked on the journey to her home in Bumini village in Mumias East Constituency, Kakamega County, questioned lingered as to why the family was unaware of their daughter’s abrupt illness until three hours after her death when they were called.
