MP Shah Hospital has allegedly refused to release the body of Naivasha ranch owner Thomas (Tom) Cholmondeley who died on Wednesday.Reports received by the Star on Thursday indicated Cholmondeley's
family members were turned away when they asked for his body.The family wanted to transfer the body to Lee Funeral Home for an independent postmortem.
"Everyone wants to know why he was taken into ICU after a standard procedure that is normally under local/spinal anaesthetic," a family member told The Star.When reached for a comment, Anup Das, CEO of the hospital in Nairobi, said: "Please ask their lawyers. They are the best people to answer." Cholmondeley a famous Kenyan farmer of British ancestry, died aged 48, after a hip replacement surgery
He was the son of the 5th Lord Delamere, one of the first and most influential British settlers in Kenya.
More on this : Aristocrat Tom Cholmondeley, accused twice of murder, dies aged 48
Tom was wheeled into one of the theatres at MP Shah on Wednesday morning and was looking forward to a routine two-hour hip replacement procedure.Neeraj Krishna, his orthopaedic surgeon, was at hand with a team of doctors.
After all the British aristocrat and great grandson of Lord Delamere was no stranger to Krishna. He has been their family doctor for years and has carried out similar operations on Cholmondeley's mother.
The team of doctors prepared the patient for the operation without a hitch. In about two hours the operation was over and the new hip carefully rammed into place.
Out of the blue, the heart monitor screen sent doctors in the theatre into alarm. The readings were disturbing.There was
too much pressure on the heart. This happened soon after the process of getting the patient out of the coma induced by anaesthetic drugs.
By 10.30 am, what was a simple operation turned into a huge life-saving emergency, a doctor at the hospital told The Star. The heart had stopped.
The hospital scrambled some of its top cardiologists to save the patient.
But three hours of electric shock after electric shock and a myriad of procedures to get the heart beating again sadly produced no result.