Obama Children Hospital. 

By Esther Odhiambo, Sherine Atieno and Winney Okoth.

 As the name suggests, Obama Children’s Hospital within the environs of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH), is specialized in attending to various cases of children’s illness.

The medical institution was founded by Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) in 2007. It was then launched by the former president of the United States of America, Barrack Obama. Due to his love for children, he permitted the hospital to be referred to his name ‘Obama’. That was the genesis of its name. To date, the hospital is known as Obama Children’s Hospital, and it’s a home of Hope for young souls.

Obama means greatness and like himself, the facility transpires to be the best and envisages boldness in health services.

JOOTRH continues to win big through its this special branch, Obama Children’s Hospital saving children from waiting for long hours to receive services.

The hospital has a total of seven doctors equipped with the knowledge and high expertise to serve all patients holistically. There are five doctors, three are pediatricians and the other two are medical officers aided by a volunteer from Lumumba.

The lead pediatrician is Dr. Josephine Ojigo, who coordinates, plans, and manages daily activities as well as formulates program goals and objectives of the organization. The head Nurse at Obama is Ms. Rose Kombe.

Being a referral hospital, Obama received patients from the Nyanza regions of Kisumu, but also from the far ends of the country. Some come from Western regions such as Busia, Kakamega, and Bungoma. Some come from lake regions of Homa Bay

Weekly the facility whose capacity is 80 beds admits about seventy to a hundred patients. Children under five years are given free services, with a payment of only Ksh 20 for registration while those above five years pay Ksh 50 for registration and a lab fee of Ksh 100.

Depending on how severe a condition is, admission is done to specific wards. The facility has a high-dependency unit where children with conditions such as asthma are offered medical care.

The facility has a barrier room that serves cancer warriors. It has six beds. The hospital has put up a special package for patients in the ‘Barrier room’, here children are served a special menu with diets high on protein, white meat being preferred, and options include fish, chicken, eggs, and as well as legumes like green grams and beans. Milk also adds up as an essential breakfast for them and nutritious porridge is served.

Her doctors also administer chemotherapy, a chemical therapeutic agent or hormones to destroy cancer cells after every prescribed stage.

The hospital has assiduously leveled up the management of different conditions which is aiding in the reduction of child mortality. The operations are structured for 24 hours to help the patients out. However, some parents and guardians bring their children after their situations get out of hand.

The hospital jointly partners with several organizations to improve its quality of service. The facility has recently partnered with Safaricom to help uplift youngsters while battling illness. Therefore, their major achievement is that the facility has been able to impact despite the limited resources at the hospital.

Being in the Nyanza region and near Lake Victoria, malaria remains to be rampant among children. To curb the situation the hospital has partnered with organizations namely Safaricom and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) through the Walter Reed Project (WRP) have sponsored the hospital with the hand rub equipment and other medical items and have ceaselessly worked with JOOTRH.

Currently, there is a study undertaken at the facility dubbed ‘SEARCH ‘which is concentrating on hemophilia and sickle cell disease (SCD). This comes at a time Kisumu planning to an International Sickle Cell Disease and Hemophilia (ICSC&H) in September this year.