By Salwa Mahmoud
He had come all the way from Hindi, tired and sick, holding on to one small hope — that King Fahad Hospital in Lamu would help him. The first time he came, he was told he needed to pay for a certain medical service. He did not have the money then. His insurance could not cover it. So, he went back home, ashamed and weak, promising himself that one day he would return when he had enough to pay.
Weeks later, he came back. This time, he had money in his pocket. You could see relief in his face , the kind of relief that comes from believing that maybe, finally, this time, he will get help. But when he arrived and met the doctor, he was told something that broke his spirit again.
The doctor told him to go back home because he had not “booked.” Just like that. No consideration for the fact that he had already been there weeks earlier. No humanity to understand that he had traveled all the way from Hindi again. No compassion to see that the man had done everything right this time , he even came prepared to pay.He was told coldly to go back home and return after another two weeks.
Imagine the pain of that moment. The man stood there in disbelief. He had done everything they asked the first time, go get the money, come back when you can pay. And now, because of a small formality, because of a “booking,” he was being turned away again.It was not about procedure anymore. It was about humanity and there was none.
What happened next showed that even inside that cold system, there are still a few who care. Another doctor, who saw what had happened, felt so bad for the man that he reported the matter to someone higher up in the hospital. Only after that did the man finally get the service he needed.
But that is the problem ,he was helped not because the hospital cared, but because someone complained. If no one had spoken up, that man would have gone home again, untreated, after spending money and energy he did not have.
It is stories like this that break the trust people have in hospitals. It is not about buildings or machines anymore,it is about attitude. The County Health leadership has done its part to equip and renovate King Fahad, but what is the point of new machines if the people running them have no heart?
That man from Hindi represents many others ,the ones who come from far, the ones who sell what little they have just to seek treatment, only to be told to go back. They are the silent victims of a system that has forgotten compassion.
Hospitals are meant to heal. But when a patient has to complain just to be treated, when rules matter more than human life, then something deep inside that system is already sick.
