March 21, 2018 is a day Roselyn Wawira will forever curse after she fell from a three storey building where she was working as a construction worker.

Despite counting herself lucky to have survived, life has not been the same for the 36 year-old mother of two and her family from Matangi centre, Juja Sub County.

She had been working at the site for two weeks with eight others transporting ballast to masons for plastering the rooms, when she accidently slide and fell.

“It was a normal day at around 11am when as I gave way to one of the guys carrying ballast on a wheelbarrow, I slide and accidentally fell to the ground. That is what I was told after regaining consciousness at Hospital three days later,” she recalls.

Wawira was admitted at the Thika Level Five Hospital for eight days where scans where done, which established that she had a fractured leg and broken collarbone which affected her nervous system.

“From the impact of hitting the cemented ground floor, I lost my senses. I couldn’t talk, hear or see,” she said.

However, the victim thought that the help she was receiving from the hospital was minimal and asked for a referral.

She was then referred to Kenyatta National Hospital where she underwent surgery to have a metal fused to repair the spinal column and leg.

She was discharged four and a half months later after her NHIF cover settled the hospital bill.

Three months later, her health deteriorated, forcing her to seek treatment at the National Spinal Injury Referral Hospital in Nairobi’s Kilimani estate, where it was found out that her spinal had been broken.

This forced the hospital to put another metal on the spinal cord.

Ever since, Wawira has become bedridden and depends on her husband and two children for help.

“I cannot walk on my own. I always need to be supported to stand, or walk. My hands cannot hold anything and I have become a liability,” she said, amid sobs.

Outside their small rental, her husband washes clothes for pay to sustain the family and his ailing wife.

Neighbours say he has become used to the job ever since the tragedy hit his family.

“We have helped the family where we can and have been overwhelmed. Out of sympathy, we give the man clothes to wash for us for a pay, at least to sustain his family. We don’t feel good, but it is difficult to all,” said Mary Mbugua, a resident.

Her husband Gideon Waweru looks overwhelmed with emotions when the press visited. He opens up saying the situation had been traumatic to the family all that while.

The family is staring at a possible eviction from their rental house due to a five months arrears.

Efforts to seek compensation from the employer were met with resistance as he was chased away, threatened never to return.

“They only paid Sh15, 000 for the MRI at the Thika Level Five Hospital. Efforts to seek for more help have been futile and they have directed that I should not visit the site again,” he said.

The situation has affected their class three and eight children, amid fear that they may not perform well in their examinations.

“We rarely sleep well as she is always in pain. We do everything for her and have become financially crippled,” he said.

“If someone could help our class eight girl through secondary school and the class three to help him complete his education, we would appreciate a lot,” Wawira said.

For now, the hapless woman hopes to get a voluntary therapy doctor to help regain her senses, to be able to walk and lead a normal life again.