Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Memorial Service Held for Nairobi Terror Attack Survivor Who Died Days Shy of
Anniversary

Rael Ombuor

   NAIROBI - On Jan. 15, 2019, when al-Shabab terrorists attacked an
   international hotel and office complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people,
   hotel nurse Noel Kidaliza was shot five times. She survived the attack
   only to die earlier this month as a result of her injuries, just ahead
   of the one-year anniversary of the attack.

   As Kidaliza's surviving relatives Thursday held a memorial service for
   the latest casualty of the attack, her surviving husband called on
   Kenyan authorities to do more to stop the Islamist militant group.

   Fifty-two-year-old Noel Kidaliza was the hotel nurse at the DusitD2
   hotel, when the militants attacked.

   Kidaliza's husband, Benard Kisanya, says the attack changed his
   family's life forever.

   She was the hotel nurse at Dusit. The only nurse in that hotel. During
   that incident, she had gone out. She ran back when she heard the
   explosion. She realized there was a patient, so she went back. When she
   went back, that's when she met those terrorists," said Kisanya.

   The Islamist militants shot Kidaliza five times -- twice in the
   shoulder and three times in the stomach.

   Kisanya says emergency medical workers got his wife to the Avenue
   Hospital about an hour after she was shot.

   Dr. Paul Odula, who was the operating surgeon, recalled the events of
   that day.

   "She looked very down and hopeless. She had multiple bullet wounds in
   her tummy. She was just lying there. That's the first thing I saw. She
   was just lying on a stretcher. So, I came in, took her to theater and
   realized it was a mess in the tummy. It was like spaghetti in the tummy
   instead of intestines. It was a mess. The surgery took us a lot of
   time, about five hours, to clean her up and connect everything back
   together," said Odula.

   'She was a fighter'

   Despite her severe injuries, Kidaliza survived and a few weeks later
   was discharged from the hospital.

   But even when she seemed to be getting better, there were
   complications.

   Because of Kidaliza's multiple wounds, says Odula, she had to
   constantly fight off infections.
   "She was a fighter. Once she realized she was alive, she fought. She
   struggled. She tried to keep going. She was lively. I hardly knew her.
   She was a colleague, a nurse. I hardly knew her, but we talked, and she
   talked, and she kept fighting, trying hard," Odula said.

.