Silas Kipchumba Kiptoo who had been working as a bodaboda rider for close to two months, woke up early morning on 23 August 20220 from his home in Elgeyo Marakwet County and helped a student who was going to a school in Tambach reach Iten Town.
All was well throughout the day as he continued with his business in town and at around 5pm he started his journey towards home on the Iten-Kapsowar road.
However, at Mindililwo Special School, while driving at a relatively high speed, he almost rammed into a lorry that was on its way to Iten.
Scared for his life, he jumped off his speeding motorcycle and unfortunately landed on his forehead where he was severely injured.
“I had no option but to jump to save my life because I could not control the motorbike at that time. I landed on the tarmacked road with my head and had my skull injured severely. It had several cracks and I bled a lot,” he narrates.
He says he was rushed to the nearest hospital Iten County Referral Hospital by unknown people while in critical condition and does not remember much about what happened when he was being attended to as he was unconscious.
His father Richard Chesoi was told that his first born son, Silas, was involved in an accident by a friend.
“That evening I received a call from a friend who told me there was a very bad accident at Mindililwo. I knew it was my son from the explanation of the injured person and the motorbike, which was still new. Silas had been using it for almost two months only. I immediately alerted my brother and we boarded a motorcycle to Iten County Referral Hospital where Silas was receiving treatment,” Chesoi explains.
Mr Chesoi says that on reaching the hospital, he could barely identify his son because he had injuries on his forehead and his head had swollen while his face was covered with blood.
“His forehead had a big crack that was bleeding a lot. He could not talk, move or even do anything at that time. The doctors at the facility attended to him at the emergency unit for 3 hours before it was decided that he be referred to Tophill Hospital for a surgery to save his life,” he adds.
Calls were made and an ambulance sent to ferry him to Tophill hospital. At around midnight, Dr Florentius Koech and an able team took Silas to theatre for an emergency operation
Dr F Koech says that he had injured his frontal part of the head and was brought with a GCS score of 4 out of 15. He had difficulty breathing, could not move or talk and his condition was very critical. The only movement noticeable was of a finger on his one hand.
“He was bleeding so much and the blood was getting into his lungs affecting his breathing. He was lucky he landed on the forehead so most of the injured parts of the brain were frontal. We had to remove most of the right frontal lobe because it was already necrotic, dead,” Dr F Koech explains
He adds that the motor strip in the frontal lobe that controls movement was also affected, causing weakness on Silas’ left side of the body and that parts of the temporal lobe were also injured.
After surgery, Silas stayed in ICU for over a week because of his condition, his family members worried that he would probably not make it.
After a surgery that took place between midnight and 5am in the morning, Silas was moved to the ICU still unconscious. His family members visited him there but were shaken by what they saw.
“When I saw him on August, 24, at around 7 am I lost hope. We were many and after seeing how his condition was, we all left separately, others crying knowing we had lost him.We had lost hope completely because he could not respond to anything,” Mr Chesoi says.
After over a week in ICU, Sila’s condition started improving and he was moved to the ward. Though he was vegetative, with proper and exceptional care, his condition kept improving day by day.
“My son could not do anything on his own. He had a feeding tube and depended on me as his caregiver to do everything. Looking at him now, I can’t believe how far we have come. Am forever grateful to Dr F Koech and the hospital,” He explains further.
Sila’s condition has greatly improved and he is scheduled for a cranioplasty anytime from now. He says he can’t wait to reach home and meet his family.
“Once I get my skull back, I want to go home. I even called my sister to come and see me but she is too scared to come. She had received reports that I was badly off. I want to meet my family and organize a thanksgiving ceremony to thank god for sparing my life,” says Silas.
Dr F Koech describes his recovery as a miracle.
“His Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) is high and he can walk and feed himself. After the cranioplasty to replace the part of the skull that was removed, he will be able to go back home fully recovered,” Dr F Koech notes.
Tophill Hospital is a level 5 Brain and Spine Specialist facility situated at Garden Road, Elgon View Eldoret. Its services are primed on exceptional Technology and Extraordinary care.
