No way to treat a visitor
June 6, 2009
Written by kenyanobserver, in Featured, KENYA
The family of an ordinary American citizen injured while on her first visit to Africa is likely to give the Kenyan medical system a closer international scrutiny and even bad publicity because of lack of use of common sense and compassion.
Dawn Cole was a contractor in Iraq with KBR. While there she met a Ugandan man, fell in love and went to Uganda to visit Africa for the first time. Unfortunately, she was involved in an auto accident in Uganda and was medivac’d to Nairobi because of her injuries. The accident paralysed her from the waist down.
After she was stabilised, the hospital refused to release her for further treatment back in the United States where she is from. Meanwhile, the bills keep racking up.
Is this the face we want to give to the world? While a business case can be made for insisting on payment, would it not have been prudent to let her go and work out the financial situation with the family and perhaps the embassy while the bill was still manageable? So far, the family has managed to pay US$20,000 but the bill keeps increasing and the shake-down from the hospital has intensified.
Her local community has rallied around her cause and have set up an account to collect money towards her medical expenses in Kenya.
Medical logo by – Leo Reynold
Related posts:
- Lorna Irungu battles on I first read the story of this courageous woman on...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Is anyone going to alert the officals in Kenya? Is there a local update to this story? Are there any news reporters in Kenya that can expose this story to give it the national coverage that it deserves. This woman is clearly becoming a victim in a country which is unlike her own.
There is a community of people here in the states that are praying for her safe return to the states. Please help her by exposing this story to the officals in the US Embassy and the African Embassy.