For more than two hours, Edward "Eddy" Onyango Otieno lay helpless on the cold tiled floor of Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital.

He'd fallen off a wheelchair less than two meters from the nurse's station, but despite his cries for assistance, nurses in the emergency unit ignored him.

Police took the 41-year-old to the hospital shortly after 10.30 p.m. on September 11 after an accident on Kangundo Road, not far from the county referral hospital.

He was wheeled into the hospital's emergency unit after regaining consciousness in the back of the police truck while being rushed there. Officers discovered him unconscious on the side of the road. He had previously been a passenger on a motorcycle.

"I'm not sure where I am. "I was brought here after an accident," the information technology expert said to his mother, probably before falling off the wheelchair. It was a quarter past midnight. He had managed to call his mother from the emergency unit using the phone of a woman later identified as Pauline Mirinda.

"I was already in bed when I heard a stranger calling." "The person on the other end, a police officer, told me (Eddy) had been hit by a lorry on Kangundo Road and that I should rush to Mama Lucy if I wanted him to be attended to because the nurses will not (treat him) without a relative around," Ms Ruth Atieno, Eddy's mother, narrated.

She immediately called her younger sister, Prof Emily Rogena, who lives in Ruai, to inform her of Eddy's accident. Prof Rogena and her husband rushed to the hospital.

"I told her to hurry and thanked her. I am confident that my son will be fine. I didn't know...," Ms Atieno couldn't continue her testimony yesterday before the Senate Committee on Health because she was overcome with grief.

Eddy died in his aunt's arms. Prof Rogena, a doctor herself, had rushed to the hospital to try to save his life.

"My nephew gasped in my hands and died at the door of a St John's Ambulance." Prof Rogena stated, "Kenyatta University Teaching Referral and Research Hospital was the destination that was not to be."

She discovered her nephew pale, with his right eye closed and the eyelid dark. He was lying on the cold floor, his shirt ripped and his jeans ripped.

"We quickly wrapped a shawl around him and asked him a few questions, but all he could say was 'pain, pain, stress.' "A cleaner came by with a mop and cleaned around him while he lay on the floor," she remembered.

Two young doctors stitched two patients with fresh open wounds in the stitching room nearby.

"When we walked into the room, one of the doctors recognized me because he was one of my former students." He quickly abandoned his work and rushed to assist us. We struggled to find his (Eddy's) pulse while no nurse came to help, instead standing at their desk watching," she explained.

Nonetheless, as a senior physician, she could not abandon hope. With the assistance of Eddy's wife, Eunice Wandeto, and her husband, Prof Rogena was able to reach St John's Ambulance.

"As we were attempting to load him into the ambulance, I noticed Eddy's eyes rolling back and him gasping. "We quickly placed him in and began resuscitation, which was unsuccessful because the ambulance had an ambubag (ventilation bag) that could not accommodate the nozzle from the oxygen tank," Prof Rogena explained.

She dashed back to the emergency room in search of a resuscitation tray, but she couldn't find one. There's no adrenaline. There aren't any mouthpieces. There were no laryngoscopes and no assistance from the nurses.

"The same nurses stood at their desk, seemingly unconcerned about what was happening to Eddy." "Eddy was declared dead around 2 a.m. on September 12," Prof Rogena explained.

He was taken to the hospital around 11 p.m. on September 11, but he died shortly thereafter, and his body was taken to Kenyatta University Funeral Home.

"After bleeding for three hours, a post-mortem conducted by Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor revealed that Eddy had lost up to 1.5 litres of blood in the soft tissues and had a fracture of the skull," she concluded her testimony.

Senators demanded that Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital be temporarily closed, accusing the staff of negligence.

"Something is obviously wrong at Mama Lucy, and we can't keep hearing the same stories." We can't continue to lose people in the name of providing services. Even if it means closing the facility. "Mama Lucy has turned into a death chamber," said nominated Senator Raphael Chimera.

Kitui Senator Enock Wambua asked the committee to make broad recommendations that would require the hospital to close temporarily to allow for the installation of functional systems.

"These are people whose lives could have been saved. We must crack the whip and do whatever is necessary, even if it means shutting down the hospital. "We have an opportunity to correct things at the hospital in order to send a message to other health facilities about the dignity of human life," he said.

Sen. Joe Nyutu of Murang'a urged the committee to recommend that the medics accept personal responsibility for their actions.

"This is a serious case of negligence," Mr Nyutu said, adding that "the death could have been avoided if the people in charge had acted quickly and professionally."

"I am deeply embarrassed to hear such cases in the future." Facilities that were intended to improve people's lives have now been transformed into death chambers. Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna stated, "Something must be done."

"We need to review the qualifications of everyone who works at Mama Lucy because these horror stories cannot continue," he added.

Uasin Gishu, Kenya Senator Jackson Mandago, the chairperson of the committee, promised to conduct a thorough investigation into the hospital.

"No one should lose their life while saving the life of another." "We're here to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said.

The committee will invite nurses from Kiambu Level Five Hospital to testify about the condition of Maureen Onyango, who died at the hospital.

Nairobi County officials will also be invited to explain how Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital works and why doctors referred a patient to Kiambu rather than Kenyatta National Hospital.