Since May, 2016, Karambu has never left her bed at KNH/CFM NEWS
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 6 – “The last time I saw my four year-old daughter was 10 months ago.”
This is the story of Tabitha Karambu Kalaine who is not sure when she is likely to see her daughter again.
If there is anything that pains the single mother most, it is the fact that her daughter is too young to understand where her mother has been for all these months.
While she grapples with the motherly emotions of separation from her daughter, she also has a bigger burden.
Karambu met her fate on May 28, 2016.
She was involved in a road accident that left her with a fractured femur.
Good Samaritans rushed her to a hospital near Ngara and she was later referred to the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Since May, 2016, Karambu has never left her bed at KNH.
When Capital FM News showed up KNH, she was smiling despite the pain and desperation.
She told us that after she was admitted in May she was put on traction.
Six weeks after admission (around July 2016) doctors discovered she had a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) – a condition that meant she could not undergo a surgery.
“They said it is risky to operate when there is a clot. So I have been on medication. They had done several tests to check if the clot had dissolved but on the following day, another consultant said it could not dissolve that fast. So they requested I be taken to a centre where I was taken by an ambulance for a scan to compare with. But unfortunately it had not dissolved,” Karambu explained.
“So around November my brother Isaiah decided to find a way how to get the pay bill so that our friends and well wishers could help me. We had done several consultation and we decided I go to India for further treatment. I opened a WhatsApp group where friends and well-wishers contributed almost Sh200,000.”
A well-wisher, Ndungu Nyoro also visited her and tried to help when she was admitted at KNH.
“He called doctors to consult about my case and he told me that many doctors said my case can be treated here in Kenya.”
Karambu had first been advised to go to India for the surgery but she was not able to raise the money needed.
After several consultations, Kenyan doctors at private hospitals said the clot should have dissolved and in fact they could not understand why it had taken so many months for her to get help.
On inquiry at a private hospital, Karambu was informed that she will require about Sh2.7 million for the operation to remove the clot at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi where she is now admitted.
Having visited and interacted with Karambu on many occasions the cry and desperation of a mother seriously missing her daughter is real.
Karambu is appealing for contributions from well-wishers to help her raise the Sh2.7 million required for the operation at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi/CFM NEWS
It is the cry of a human being on a hospital bed for 10 months. Her leg is tightly clutched around the hospital bed with a heavy metal on it. She cannot bend it at the hip, at the knee or ankle.
Karambu is appealing for contributions from well-wishers to help her raise the Sh2.7 million required for the operation at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi.
She can be reached on +254721 531407.
Contributions can be sent to PayBill Number 831967 account name Tabitha.
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