Taita Taveta Man Pleads For Help To Bury Amputated Arm Abandoned In Mortuary 16 Years Ago

• Sixteen years ago, a machine at a sisal farm severed David Sanguli's right hand, after which the arm was taken to Wesu Hospital Mortuary by the police
• Several months down the line, he was presented with a bill from the hospital demanding that he pays KSh 106,000 to settle the mortuary expenses before he could retrieve the arm
• Today, the father of five continues to endure the emotional distress of being unable to give a proper burial for his lost arm

Every new dawn reminds Mr David Sanguli from Singila Majengo village in Mwatate that he still has a missing puzzle in life; his right arm.

For 16 years, the 45-year-old has lived with the conviction that his missing arm lies in a freezer at Wesu Hospital Mortuary in Wundanyi sub-county.

Sanguli lost arm in 2007

According to a report by Kenya News Agency, Sanguli's limb was chopped off by a sisal-cutting machine at Teita Sisal Estate in May 2007.

The troubled man disclosed that as much as he is not superstitious, his heart has not had peace since he was separated from the body part.

This is due to the fact that he experiences recurrent nightmares at night, which he believes will come to an end once he accords it a proper burial.

“My arm has tortured me for many years. All I want is to get it back so that I can bury it with dignity and honour. Is that too much to ask for?” he asked.

Colleagues heard his screams late

He recalled the fateful evening in May 2007 when his hand was chopped off in the brush room as he was feeding sisal leaves into the machine.

Sanguli says that he first went into shock, followed by a feeling of numbness before a wave of excruciating pain tore through his body.

By the time his colleagues heard his screams and rushed over to switch off the power from the main switch, his hand had already been amputated.

“The pain was indescribable. My colleagues rushed me to the clinic to stop the bleeding,” he remembered.

Police took his hand to morgue

While receiving treatment at Moi County Referral Hospital in Voi, he received information from his colleagues that police officers had taken his limb to Wesu Hospital Mortuary.

The father of five says he focused on pursuing the company for compensation and, therefore, did not pay much attention to the limb.

It is only in April 2008 that he received a police letter giving him the go-ahead to pick his arm after clearing a mortuary bill of KSh 106,000.

Sanguli wondered why the morgue was charging him such an exorbitant figure to preserve an arm for just 355 days.

Sanguli unable to pay morgue bill

Given his condition, he was unable to raise the required money, and his pleas to have the bill waived were also futile.

Sanguli says the thought of his arm lying dead in a mortuary while the rest of his body is alive traumatises him.

As of now, the bill has probably accumulated to over one million shillings, which makes it almost out of reach for him.

The worrying possibility is that the had was disposed long ago as the Public Health Act, Cap. 242, orders unclaimed bodies to be removed from the mortuary after fourteen days for disposal.

However, the family man remains hopeful that a day will come when he is not only reunited with his limb but also burry it.

MTRH doctors reattached amputated hand

Elsewhere, doctors at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) recently successfully reattached an amputated limb on a patient codenamed BK.

The 35-year-old man was admitted to the hospital following a traumatic amputation of his left hand at the wrist.

Through an intricate 11-hour surgical procedure, the skilled medics achieved the remarkable feat of rejoining the severed hand, marking a significant achievement in the field of medicine.