Had Timothy Byara imagined that going to the sauna to unwind would have turned tragic, he would have chosen another indulgence.
He walked into a sauna at Nairobi Club a healthy man, only to walk out a sick man with second-degree burns. His afternoon of relaxation quickly turned catastrophic in what he claims was negligence on the part of the club.
He now wants to be compensated for the damages, the pain, and the money he used for treatment.
Around 4.50 pm on August 31, 2022, after being in the sauna for about 25 minutes, he recalls, he was “severely injured due to the excess heat and extremely hot air”. As a result, he suffered burns on his head, ears, neck, back, shoulders, torso, forearms, palms and thighs.
Byara, originally a Ugandan, who works and lives in the United States, was in Kenya together with his wife, for a vacation of six months.
His wife is a member of the club, and he was there at her invitation. This has, however, changed his life forever, he says.
Detoxifying perspiration
The sauna heat encourages detoxifying perspiration, relief from aches and pains, and deep relaxation, among many other health benefits.
A sauna is usually a small room designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions. A bather goes in, and the room is heated. The resulting steam and high heat make the users perspire.
The half-hour Byara spent inside the sauna was to have been “a bath from inside out”. Instead, he spent the subsequent days worrying about his health.
He flew into the country fit and healthy in April. He was visiting his family and friends. Upon the expiry of the period, he was to return to his home in Ohio, USA.
Instead, he became immobile and was in excruciating pain for a fortnight.
Therapy sessions then become part of his life. After nursing wounds for more than two months, he has been undergoing physiotherapy. Yesterday he jetted out of the country, in pain, on medication and under the close watch of medical workers.
A sauna warms up the body and can be used in a number of ways, both recreational and for health purposes.
For some, the best time for a sauna is after their exercise routine or gym workout. Others prefer it as a relaxing experience reserved for a vacation at a spa. Others, however, use a sauna for health reasons under the supervision of a doctor.
Mr Timothy Byara explains how he recovered from Sauna Burn wounds he sustained at Nairobi Club.
Byara was in the sauna for recreation. He is not new to them and had used the very sauna that left him nursing wounds three times before.
“I just don’t know what went wrong this time round,” he says.
His wife, he says, repeatedly sought to discuss the matter with the club’s management. “All in vain,” he remarks.
Risks awareness
Following the futile attempts, an ailing Byara has engaged a lawyer to compel the club to compensate him for the negligence, for his lost time and deteriorating health.
But more so, he explained, he is sharing his story to create awareness of the risks of an experience he really enjoys.
“Our client’s (Mr Byara) mobility has been significantly hampered due to the injuries he sustained at your facilities. Furthermore, he has had to postpone his scheduled return to the USA, at a cost as well as risk to his employment,” Byara’s advocate wrote to the hotel.
In a letter dated October 18, the club acknowledges the complaint but remains non-committal.
“Whereas we do not have details of the incident, we have noted it and are forwarding your letter to our various agencies for advice and action,” it responded. “We also do not seem to know of any futile attempts to discuss the matter with our management.”
Nairobi Club CEO Walter Nyandiko on Thursday told the Nation that the sauna is manned at all times it is in operation.
“Whoever is using our facility is using it at their own risk. and we have a notice to that effect … we have people who man the facility so if you’ve never used the facility before, you are helped,” he explained.
“I do not know why he did not seek assistance … and we can’t just compensate without investigations,” Mr Nyandiko added.
dogetta@ke.nationmedia.com
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The sauna culture: My unforgettable moments in Finland
When our hosts sent us the programme for our stay in Helsinki, Finland, I was intrigued by an entry at the end of a busy Wednesday. Finnish sauna experience.
At first, it didn’t strike me as a serious affair until I read about why the sauna is an important part of Finnish culture and then followed by a graphic description of the Löyly Restaurant. I had to savour the moment.
According to the deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Finland in Nairobi, Otto Kivinen, “Sauna is the most democratic place in the world. Everyone leaves their uniforms outside and comes in as they are.”
However, I inadvertently forgot to pack my swimwear before leaving Nairobi and considered sitting out as my colleagues on the trip proceeded to enjoy themselves.
The last engagement for the day was a visit to the Oddi Helsinki Central Library (a magnificent piece of modern architecture open to the public). I enquired from Anu Lehtinen, the communications officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where I could buy the trunks. My colleague from Colombia, Cesar Giraldo, also happened not to have packed one.
Anu offered to take us to a sportswear store. My forgetfulness set me back 20 Euros.
The Löyly is a lovely hotel complex. It is set at the southern tip of Helsinki by the waterfront and the cold breeze from the Baltic Sea is just perfect before one goes to sweat it out in the sauna. A reservation is mandatory.
Two saunas
There are two saunas—for private and public use. We’re booked into the public traditional wood-fired sauna. Finland is a forest country and so wood is most convenient for heating the water. There’s also a lot of wood furniture wherever you go. They even make clothes from wood!
Each visitor is given a towel, seat liner, shampoo and a key for their assigned locker. The key has a short lanyard, which I fit around my ankle. I don’t need any encumbrances. We got in and closed the glass door. The sauna can host about 20 people seated at two wooden levels, but there were about 15 at the time; both men and women.
The chamber was pleasurably hot and filled with a general sense of camaraderie among strangers. Finns are quite welcoming and the sauna is one place they go to socialise, chat and laugh. It took me a while to register that I was the only black inside. When you indicate that you don’t speak Finnish, they quickly switch to English, which is taught as a compulsory subject in school.
Once in a while, when the temperatures went down, someone would volunteer to add water to the boiler. Hot steam would rise up through the wooden platform, making the bodies glisten with sweat.
Those who wished to take a dive in the freezing Baltic Sea did so and came back to the sauna. I went out with my Brazilian and Colombian colleagues to test the temperature of the water. None of us was brave enough to swim and only dipped our feet in, to just say we’d ‘entered’ the Baltic Sea.
At the end of our two hours in the sauna, we cooled off with two pints of cold Finnish lager. We were then hosted for dinner at the adjacent Löyly Ravintola. No exploration of foreign culture is complete without sampling the people’s food. The grilled reindeer steak was quite a pleasant surprise to my adventurous palate. Come this Christmas, I won’t imagine Santa Claus’ reindeers pulling a sleigh on snow but rather as succulent steak on a plate. BY DAILY NATION