Lodwar- May 15, 2025 (Public Communications and Media Relations)
Esther Ayanae, a 24-year-old woman from Riokomor Village is the first woman to undergo the first-ever Cesarean Section (CS) surgery at Lokitaung Sub-County Hospital in Turkana North. The successful surgery was accomplished on April 5th at Dr Rafael Morcillo Theater in Lokitaung.
Expressing her gratitude to the medical team, Ayanae shared, “I cannot thank the doctors enough, while I was asleep, they delivered my baby”.
Just weeks later, Ayanae and her baby boy who weighed 2.6 kilograms at birth, are doing well. The baby has just received his first immunization at 6 weeks at the Riokomor Dispensary, the facility that referred her for surgery.
The surgery was opted for due to breech presentation in a mother who had had a previous CS. Therefore, the medical team, led by the Dr Sin’goei Henry (Medical Officer) ensured they had the right equipment, drugs, and an immaculate condition to determine best surgical outcome.
This is a testament to the county government’s efforts to devolve healthcare operations to sub-county hospitals and reduce referral cases to Lodwar County Referral Hospital (LCRH).
Ayanae also shared, “Both the baby and I are doing well. I am still healing, and the medication is helping”.
Some of the contributing factors as to why it has taken this long to conduct a CS operation in Lokitaung include socio-cultural factors, myths and misconceptions around operative deliveries, inaccessibility from the hard-to-reach areas in the vast Turkana North.
The Sub-County Medical Officer of Health Daniel Lokiriama contributed greatly to the success of this surgery through timely coordination of the referral case. He collaborated with the Catholic Parish to ensure timely response through an ambulance vehicle from Kokselei, six kilometers away from the referring facility.
Moving forward it is expected that there will be more CS deliveries at Lokitaung and other Sub-County hospitals with support from community units through a robust community health strategy and peripheral health facilities support.
Continued sensitization through the Department of Health will further improve health seeking behaviour and strengthen the health system building blocks in Sub-County Hospitals.
Dr Sing’oei was supported by a dedicated team including Ezekiel Epetet (Assisting Surgeon/ Scrub Nurse), Simon Lobuin (AMREF seconded nurse as a Receiving Nurse), Purity Edung (Circulating/ Volunteer theatre technologist), and the Anaesthetist Wesley Achenchi.
The post-operative care was provided by Dickson Nyongesa (Physiotherapist), Nutritionist Pedo Vashty and nutrition volunteers (Diana Emase and Peter Ibuya (Nutritional review care), Dismas Erupe and Simon Lobuin who provided nursing care.
