Family appeals for help clearing KSh1.2M bill before picking body of kin held at Pandya Hospital

A family in Malindi, Kilifi County, is in agony after failing to raise KSh1.2 million hospital bills for their kin who died while undergoing treatment at Pandya Hospital in Mombasa two weeks ago.

Elina Yongo from Gahaleni village in Ganda Ward of Malindi Constituency was diagnosed with cancer with many other complications in her body and had been receiving specialized treatment at the health facility. The hospital bill rose accumulated to KSh1,181,100 after failing to get the services from local government facilities.

Since her death, the family has been conducting fundraising for the last two weeks but have only managed to raise KSh100,000.

Hospital bill continues to rise

They are appealing to well-wishers, the county government, and the national government to intervene so as to help them clear the bill and enable them to pick up their kin’s body for burial.

The family's fear is that the bill will continue to rise with each passing day the body is in the facility's mortuary - a 3% interest daily.

Elizabeth Karisa, the deceased's mother while speaking to journalists at her Gahaleni home appealed for help from the government as she is unable to foot the hospital bill and her daughter's body is being held at the Pandya Hospital.

”I am really suffering and the body is in hospital and I do not have the money to pay the bill, to make it worse the bill is accumulating,” she said.

Family sells all assets

Sellina Yongo, the deceased's sister said doctors at the government facilities recommended a CT scan to be done in Mombasa which revealed she had many complications including cancer.

She said they have sold everything to cater for her treatment but did not succeed because after surgery was conducted twice she was diagnosed with cancer.

Yongo said her sister was a single mother with a nine-year-old child who depended on farming at her home for survival.

”We have been fundraising since she died up to now we managed to raise only KSh100,000 and this is the second week she is in the mortuary,” she said.

Yongo said the reason for going to Pandya Hospital is not because they did not want to go to government facilities but due to the complications as some of them had affected the liver and required specialized treatment.

”She really was for the surgery because she believed that after that she would recover fully but she did not survive,” she said.

Yongo said they have tried to look for support from the newly-elected leaders but it has been difficult because they were sworn in the office recently and feel they may not be in a position to help so far.

She appealed to President William Ruto to intervene and help the family settle the bill so as to pick it for burial.

Alfred Safari, a relative of the deceased said they have lost all hope of raising the huge bill due to the hard economic times.

He said it has been difficult to raise even KSh5000 during their daily fundraisings and appealed to the government and well-wishers to intervene and help them clear the hospital bill.

”They have given us only one month to clear the bill after which we will be charged interest, now its the second week, and once the month ends we will now be forced to pay with interest, we fear if interest is charged it will be like the money we are fundraising shall only be for interest and can stay for even one year without settling the bill,” he said.