MIGORI: A family in Migori County is demanding accountability and accusing medical staff of gross negligence following the tragic death of 23-year-old Emmaculate Wanjiru.

The young mother of two died just hours after undergoing what was expected to be a routine Cesarean section delivery at the Migori County Referral Hospital.

According to her family, Wanjiru arrived at the facility in stable health with no known underlying medical conditions.

Today, they are left demanding answers as to how a healthy young woman who walked into the hospital to give birth left in a body bag.

The ordeal began on Sunday, June 22, 2026, when Wanjiru went into labor; she was initially rushed by her mother-in-law, Grace, to the Osingo dispensary in Suna East sub-county.

Due to slow dilation, the labor became prolonged and moments past midnight, the dispensary staff made the decision to induce labor.

The situation quickly escalated into an emergency when the baby presented in a dangerous hand-first malpresentation.

Recognizing the immediate risk to both mother and child, an ambulance was requested, and Wanjiru was rushed to the Migori County Referral Hospital.

Upon arrival, standard consent forms were signed, and Wanjiru was taken directly to the operating theater.

Bouncing baby boy

At approximately 4:00 PM, she successfully delivered a healthy baby boy.

Medical staff handed the newborn to Grace, reassuring her that Wanjiru was doing well. Moments later, Grace was briefly allowed into the theater.

Wanjiru temporarily removed her oxygen mask to speak with her mother-in-law, reassuring her that they would reunite in the ward.

Relieved, Grace left the hospital premises to buy essential supplies for the newborn. It would be the last time she saw her daughter-in-law alive.

Multiple surgeries

When Grace returned, Wanjiru had still not been transferred to the ward and for several hours, family members questioned hospital staff but were repeatedly brushed off and told that doctors were still attending to her.

The troubling truth emerged at 9pm when a doctor informed Grace that Wanjiru’s blood pressure had dropped drastically and efforts to save her had failed.

Refusing to let the body be moved to the mortuary without an explanation, the family confronted the staff.

It was then revealed that Wanjiru had undergone three separate surgeries within a span of just five hours.

“In the first one, they removed the baby and stitched the mother,” the family alleged during the confrontation.

“In the second, they unstitched her and removed the womb. In the third one, we do not know what was removed.”

Grace has fiercely questioned why the hospital failed to approach the family for consent before performing the subsequent two surgical interventions.

Wanjiru’s husband, Peter Atonga, who was in Nairobi at the time, traveled through the night after sensing something was terribly wrong.

Arriving at the facility at 7am the following morning, he confronted the administration. Two doctors confirmed his wife had been operated on three times due to low blood pressure complications.

The family has leveled several serious allegations against the facility: the family alleges they received information that the fatal operations were conducted by an unsupervised medical intern.

“In this issue, we are being told interns were left alone in the theater,” stated Wanjiru’s uncle, Jethro Ochollah.

No treatment chart

The hospital administration has reportedly refused to release Wanjiru’s treatment chart and theater records to the family.

Rather than providing clear clinical answers, management reportedly attempted to redirect the family to a hospital psychologist, a move the family dismissed as an attempt to pacify their anger.

The family slammed county officials and hired bloggers whom they claim are attempting to sanitize the hospital’s image by sharing irrelevant photos of the operating theater online.

For Grace, this tragedy reopens a painful, recent wound. In October 2025, she lost another daughter-in-law after the same facility allegedly turned them away during an overdue pregnancy, which ultimately resulted in a stillbirth at a different hospital.

Faced with severe community distress and allegations of negligence, Migori County Health CECM Opondi issued a staunch defense of the clinical team, outlining a timeline of severe, unpredictable medical complications.

According to the medical team, Wanjiru developed severe intra- and post-operative complications following the initial C-section, prompting immediate resuscitation efforts with intravenous fluids.

When her condition deteriorated further around 6pm, a consultant surgeon was urgently notified and arrived without delay.

The medical team claimed that Wanjiru’s blood pressure had dropped drastically, forcing the critical decision to wheel her back into the operating theater for secondary surgical management.

Doctors reported that they opened her a second time to check for internal bleeding. Finding none, they closed her up again, ultimately resorting to an emergency hysterectomy (removal of the womb) in a final, desperate bid to stabilize her.

Last breath

The final battle for her life began at 9pm when Wanjiru went into cardiac arrest.

“The medical team administered CPR and adrenaline continuously for 30 minutes in a sustained effort to revive her,” Opondi stated.

“Despite every intervention available to our clinical team, she could not be saved.”

The young mother was officially pronounced dead at 9pm.

“I wish to state clearly for the record that our medical team and the nursing staff did not abandon this patient,” Opondi emphasized.

“They fought for her until the very end,” Opondi extended condolences to the family and maintained that the administration ensured the family was informed with transparency and care following her passing.

The grieving family has rejected the county’s explanations, stating they have zero faith in the local government’s ability to conduct an unbiased internal audit.

They are calling for an immediate, independent investigation from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC).

They also demand that the Health CECM take full responsibility and issue a completely transparent public statement regarding theater staffing.

“We can no longer call this a referral hospital. Migori County Referral Hospital has turned into a killing and referral hospital,” said an angered Ochollah adding that, “We are not interested in tokens or cover-ups. We want justice for Immaculate.”