PGH morgue mix up: How Elburgon family buried wrong body

A family in Elburgon ward was thrown into a second bout of mourning on August 27 after discovering an order had been issued to exhume a body following a mix-up at the Nakuru County Referral and Teaching Hospital (PGH) morgue.

The late John Kimondo was mistaken for the late John Cheruiyot, whose relatives had visited the same morgue on August 25 to prepare for his burial, only to be told days later that his remains had been released to another family and buried on August 19.

Damaris Wangechi Ikau, wife to the late 78-year-old Kimondo, says they had identified their kin, completed all formalities, and were satisfied with the preparations.

“My husband had long white hair, and his leg was bent. We asked the morgue attendants to shave him and help straighten his leg when he passed. When we returned, they told us they had done it, showed him to us, and we were satisfied. That is how John Cheruiyot ended up in our home,” she explains.

According to Wangechi, her husband had a mark on his leg similar to Cheruiyot’s, which she believes is where the mix-up began.

“Dealing with a departed loved one is already hard. It is worse when, in your period of mourning, you discover you buried someone else. It is so bad. The morgue attendants should be more careful so that this incident does not happen to another family,” she says.

She adds that her husband was eventually buried on the same day in a hurried, unceremonious way, without the shaving and preparation the family had requested, surrounded by ministry officials, a few relatives, and curious neighbors.

Festus Waweru Kaiuki, brother to the deceased, says the family had been convinced at the time because people from Nakuru identified the body, and it turns out the two men shared some similarities.

“The issue only came to light after the Mauche family went to the media. Even with a label, we still wonder how the mix-up happened. We had been satisfied, but today I have confirmed it is truly him,” he says.

He notes that while they have now laid his brother to rest, they will hold a family memorial service at the end of next month to properly honor him.

Mtaa Wangu reached out to the county government for clarification, given that this comes months after the case of Baby Mercy, whose body went missing at the same facility earlier in the year.

County Executive for Health Roselyn Mungai clarified that the current case is different from the February incident.

“It was the most unfortunate thing that happened, and we treated the earlier incident as a major breach, with the hospital inviting the DCI to investigate, and harsh disciplinary measures taken against staff, including interdictions and contract terminations,” she says in a phone interview with Mtaa Wangu on August 27.

She notes that the county has since been placing systems to guard against a repeat.

“A full end-to-end investigation will be conducted into this recent incident. What we’ve been doing is to figure out the processes, all the way from the ward where the two gentlemen were entered into the system, and then at what point this became a completely different case because it is now a mix-up," Mrs Mungai says.

While responsibility lies with the hospital and department to prevent such errors, she maintains that the mix-up was not a common occurrence but one that still happened and must be fixed.