By Patsy Beangstrom
A former Northern Cape mother has been awarded about R4-million in a court case against a Johannesburg neurosurgeon after her son was left disabled following a brain operation 10 years ago.
Dr Isak Bezuidenhout was ordered by the Johannesburg High Court to pay R3,7-million in total damages for negligence.
He was further ordered to pay all legal expenses and cover the cost of several expert witnesses.
'In need of constant supervision' Bernard Joubert, now 12, is so disabled that he will never be able to look after himself, while his memory and concentration are severely impaired.
According to the Legalbrief website, Judge CP Rabie ruled that Bernard "has permanent physical, intellectual, social and personality deficits and functions at a basic level comparable with a child of two or three years old".
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"He will always be in need of constant supervision".
Bernard's father gassed himself in his car in Cape Town shortly after the operation. His mother, Charmaine Joubert, moved from Hartswater to Cape Town so that Bernard could be cared for at the Alta du Toit School in Bellville.
"I'm grateful, but I still ask myself: What will happen to my child? Who'll nurture and love him if I die?" she said after the judgment last week.
Bezuidenhout originally performed a craniotomy on Bernard at Garden City Clinic in Joburg to drain blood from the arachnoid system in the left part of his brain. The arachnoid web swelled up again and Bezuidenhout did a second operation.
There were complications during and after the operation, and another doctor had to do an emergency operation.
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This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on August 28, 2007
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