At Nairobi Womens Hospital in Kitengela, doctors told Maronda that he had very low blood levels.
Hundreds of Kenyans are dying at home or private hospitals and village dispensaries as doctors square it out with the government over pay, posting and remuneration of interns.
The patients are the unfortunate pawns in this battle of titans that has dragged on for weeks as negotiations between the government and medical unions drag on. The Daily Nation has been on the trail of one such patient and reveals how the young man, who in his prime was full of energy and big dreams, died after days of neglect in empty hospital halls.
Maxwell Maronda was admitted to hospital when he turned 24 earlier in the year.
At the time, doctors were planning to go on strike, and his family hoped he would be discharged before that happened.
Maronda was the third born and the only son in a family of four.
He was planning to build himself a house in Keroka. His eldest sister, Jillian Bonareri, told the that Maronda was as go-getter.
Marondas ailment started as a toothache on January 28. He went to local dentist to get checked. His overgrown tooth was extracted in the process. That was way before the doctors began the work boycott.
When my brother woke up after a six-hour sleep, he found his bed soaked in blood. He did not know why he had bled so much when it was a mere toothache, said Ms Bonareri.
Maronda quickly went to a pharmacy but the attendants referred him to the hospital the tooth was extracted.
He, however, did not get the help he had hoped for. By that time, the bleeding was accompanied by an unusual headache.
Maronda went to a different hospital for a second opinion.
At Nairobi Womens Hospital in Kitengela, doctors told Maronda that he had very low blood levels.
They attended to him, and the gushing blood episode and the migraine ebbed, but only for a few days.
He was working on his laptop at his house days later when his vision became blurry. He fell but remained conscious, Ms Bonareri says.
He managed to crawl to his door and seek help from a neighbour who took him to hospital.
Maronda was sent on an emergency referral to another private hospital where he remained for two weeks.
Ms Bonareri says the medical bill shot to Sh300,000. The only diagnosis at the time was that he had low platelets and red blood cells.
That is why my brother was bleeding a lot, she said.
In the two weeks that he remained at the hospital, Maronda only had a blood transfusion.
The young man was still unwell when he was discharged.
He took the decision to go to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), accompanied by his girlfriend. That was after getting a referral from where he had been discharged. There, Maronda was to see a haematologist for a bone marrow test.
The doctors at KNH ruled out sickle cell anaemia and leukaemia but Maronda was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia.
This is a rare blood condition caused by damage to the bone marrow that stops production of new blood cells.
He was given drugs to last him a few days and advised to identify a hospital he could receive frequent blood transfusions.
Maronda chose Mama Lucy Hospital in Kayole because of its proximity to his house in Saika, a settlement off Kangundo Road.
About the same time he was choosing Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital as his transfusion centre, doctors were busy protesting in the streets.
They waved placards, vowing not to resume duty until their demands were met by the government.
Maronda had a hospital, but no doctor to attend to him.
Days later, he fainted at home, again. Marondas family moved him from one hospital to another in an effort to have him admitted for close examination.
Unfortunately, none of the hospitals wanted him and those that did had no personnel or equipment required.
The family was very desperate as we watched him waste away. We had to look for connections to get a bed at Mama Lucy Hospital, Ms Bonareri says.
We begged the doctors to come to his assistance but they were on strike. There was no doctor on call when he was admitted to Mama Lucy. Those who agreed to talk advised us to transfer him to a different hospital.
The family says that the doctors consulted ignored the aplastic anaemia diagnosis. With few willing to observe him or run tests, Maronda watched in despair as his body started giving in.
A young man been abandoned at his greatest hour of need. He could not afford expensive private health care. As a Kenyan adult, he qualified to get the best level of medical care from a public hospital. The help never came. One morning, Maronda go
