Dr Desree Moraa Obwogi, a 27-year old medical intern working in Gatundu has died by suicide after a fight with depression. Reports say that Dr Desree Moraa was found dead at the balcony of her bedroom apartment on Sunday night.
Police who visited the scene said that she was found in what appeared to have been death by suicide. She was staying alone at the time of her death.
Reports further claimed that the late medical intern had left behind a suicide note in which she suggested that she had been battling depression due to stress and an unbearable workload.
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One of her colleagues said that she had been placed on twelve hour shifts that would at times stretch to 36 hours.
“She had no food in the last 12 hours before her death. She [did not] drink or smoke. She also hadn’t paid rent for this month and the landlord was on her neck,” the colleague who identified as Harry on social media stated. “Let’s pray for all medical interns in the country because what we’re going through cannot be expressed in words.”
Harry, while commenting on Dr Moraa’s death, went on to say that on Friday night, he had attempted to overdose due to work related frustrations.
Medical interns in Kenya have been going through a rough patch that has involved strikes and protest after going for two years without being posted for their internships.
Between the months of March and May this year, the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) held a nationwide strike to protest against the government’s refusal to post and properly pay intern doctors.
