Pain, suffering as blood crisis hits Nyanza’s biggest hospital
The nurse in-charge of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital shows one of the screens they have set up at the facility that will be used to minitor Corona Patients should the pandemic find its way to the lake city.
The gradual withdrawal of the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) funding since 2014 and the failure by the government to plug the resulting gap have caused a crisis in regional and satellite blood banks.
The Kisumu Blood Transfusion Centre has a capacity to store up to 5,000 units of blood, but it currently has less than 400 units.
When Ms Mary Amutabi, a resident of Vihiga, was referred to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital for dialysis two weeks ago, she did not anticipate to experience the challenges that come with acute blood crisis.
The Level Five facility, popularly known as ‘Russia’ by locals, has run out of blood, with patients like Ms Amutabi now forced to request their family members to donate blood.
