Everline Namukhula, who gave birth to quintuplets from Shisokhe village in Navakholo sub-county, Kakamega, is dead.
Namukhula passed away while undergoing treatment at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
She is said to have complained of chest pains last night.
Namukhula’s doctors said she had a blood clot which blocked vessels in her lungs.
For four days she was on medication and was seemingly improving. But last evening, she was placed on antibiotics.
Doctors had recommended a scan to spot the clot.
Namukhula shortly started vomiting and had a fever. She had difficulty breathing before collapsing.
The 28-year-old mother was taken to the semi-intensive care unit but she was pronounced dead on arrival.
She lost two of her newborns barely a week ago.
Doctors will conduct a postmortem to issue a full report on the death since she had been medically stable.
Namukhula made the headlines last month when she gave birth to the quintuplets – three girls and two boys.
Before the five, she had four children, two of whom are twins.
At the time, she said,
“I am happy, and I thank God for blessing me with five children at once. We have many people who would want to have children, but they are unable to get due to health challenges.”
No one would imagine that the 28-year-old mother of four other children, would leave her newborns shortly after.
According to Kenya’s The Nation, MTRH chief executive Dr Wilson Aruasa on Sunday said the mother suffered pulmonary embolism — a blood clot blocked blood vessel in her lungs.
“This morning, doctors recommended a CT scan to identify the spot of the blood clot. Immediately after the scan, she vomited, started sweating and had difficulty in breathing before collapsing at midday,” Dr Aruasa said.
He said the patient was rushed to a semi-intensive care unit, where she was dead on arrival.
“Initial tests confirmed that her heart was enlarged and some fluids had formed around it. We can’t determine what happened. A postmortem examination will confirm that. For now, we can’t say much. Let’s allow the family to grieve” Dr Aruasa told the Nation on phone.
“Doctors are now preparing to do a postmortem and give a full report. We are saddened by her death as she was out of the danger zone, and was getting stronger by the day,” Dr Aruasa added.
The five babies were born on March 10 at Kakamega County Referral Hospital and were referred to MTRH for specialised care, but they developed breathing complications.
They were being fed on breast milk expressed from the mother using cups and spoons.
This is because the mother had been reluctant to breastfeed the babies because of cultural reasons; quintuplets are said to bring bad omen.
Dr Aruasa confirmed that two boys died last week following complications.
“The remaining three girls are doing well and under special attention by our nurses,” Dr Aruasa said.
Ms Namukhula is survived by her husband, Mr Emmanuel Wanjala, who is deaf and fends for the family by doing odd jobs in the village.
