By Prudence Minayo
Growing up in Nairobi during the 90s, a young Daniel Ogutu aspired to be a doctor. This was intensified in 1999 at the height of the HIV/AIDS infections that claimed a lot of lives. Some of these people were neighbours and relatives.
His hope was to help the people living with the disease by finding a cure. This desire was realized after a near fatal illness hit too close to home.
This was the inspiration behind Doki’s advice, a program that offers free consultation and camps for patients who would ordinarily not afford medical care.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Background and Education
Dr. Daniel Ogutu was born the last in a family of seven children and brought up in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood.
A credit collector, his father believed that education could unlock great doors and ensured his children got the best possible education.
While life was not rosy and the family would at times go without a meal, he was able to successfully complete his education.
“It is not that we always had everything we needed, there are days when we would go hungry. Our father would advise us to ‘drink some water, and you will not feel hungry anymore’. Despite all these challenges, he made sure, even with the small salary, we had all gone to school to the end,” he was quoted by Qazini.
He attended City Primary School followed by Agha Khan before proceeding for further studies in Germany where his elder brother also attended medical school. He took up medical studies in 2007 at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
Career
After seven years of medical training, he joined a community hospital in GroB Gerau. Following intensive training at the hospital, he joined a bigger facility where he trained in intensive care. Later, he specialized in internal and emergency medicine.
Doki’s Advice
One day, Dr. Daniel Ogutu received a disturbing call concerning his father’s health. He had suffered a heart attack and there was not a hospital nearby to treat him.
He was flown to Nairobi where the family had to part with Ksh400,000 for the doctors to commence treatment. Luckily, they were able to raise the money.
This got him thinking of people who were in such situations but could not afford medical care, hence he came up with an initiative called Doki’s Advice.
The organization has been able to organize camps offering free consultations for various diseases including diabetes, cancer, hypertension, kidney and liver diseases, Gastrointestinal and heart and lung diseases.
Apart from consultations during medical camps, they have also done dozens of consultations through various social media platforms.
The camps organized have also offered free surgeries for various spine and brain injuries.
Before starting his own camps, the doctor would travel to various places around the country offering his services and training the personnel on the ground.
Doki’s Advice began with a handful of doctors but more medical professionals have joined the course with a bid to improve community health. Modern technology and the internet have helped the program which is continuously advancing to reach its goal.
As the program hopes to boost knowledge exchange and collaboration between medics from all over the world, they also aspire for a future where East Africa will have quality medical facilities and highly trained professionals.
