By Noor-Jehan Yoro Badat
The nurse who attended to baby Laila Subramoney is still on duty at the Life Wilgeheuwel Hospital.
Laila, six months old at the time, went into the West Rand hospital to be treated for an ear infection, only to be discharged almost a month later nearly blind, and deaf in one ear.
Her parents, Kogie and Rodney, of Honeydew, are suing the hospital, claiming one of its nurses acted negligently while treating their baby.
Life Healthcare Group spokeswoman Marietjie Shelly said while they had "empathy with the family and their plight" their investigations so far revealed "no negligence or misconduct by the nursing staff".
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But, because of the legal restrictions on the release of patient information, "we cannot provide you with the information to back this up".
Shelly said their investigation found the nurse who treated Laila "fully adhered to nursing procedures".
"She did not act negligently in any way, and there were no grounds for taking disciplinary action against her."
According to Shelly, the incident was "immediately reported by the hospital's process manager to the hospital manager and nursing manager.
The investigations started on the day of the incident, and there were a number of facets to those investigations.
"The investigation into the conduct of the nursing staff who were involved in the treatment of baby Laila has been completed."
It involved interviews with and statements by the staff members in question, and other people who witnessed or were in close proximity to the incident.
"It also entailed checking the nursing records, the medication administered, whether the nursing staff adhered to the protocols pertaining to the administration of the medication, and to action taken by the enrolled nurse who administered medication after the baby stopped breathing.
"Specialist nursing and quality systems staff from the group's head office were involved in the investigation and in the assessment of all information."
Shelly said the nursing staff and the paediatrician involved should be "commended for the calm focused and professional way" in which they responded.
"Claims by Laila's parents that their baby would have died if a doctor was not on hand to resuscitate her are unsubstantiated.
"In such a case, the nursing staff would have initiated resuscitation, as both enrolled and registered nurses who were there are trained in basic life support skills.
"When the incident happened, another staff member who saw it happening immediately called for help from the hospital's emergency response team. They were on the scene within minutes," said Shelly.
"If the doctor wasn't present, they would have continued with the resuscitation process started by the nursing staff.
"Even with this commitment, training, comprehensive protocols and procedures, it would be naive to say that mistakes cannot be made in our hospital."
"In baby Laila's case, however, we can say with confidence that there was no negligence or wrongfulness," said Shelly.
The Subramoneys' lawyer, Stephen Flowers, said he would not respond to the hospital's assertions in the media.
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Pretoria News on November 05, 2009
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