Pretoria - Health authorities cannot be held responsible for the death of a mother of two shortly after she was discharged from hospital due to a nationwide strike during which healthcare workers were forced to send patients home.
This was the finding of the High Court in Pretoria, which turned down a damages claim instituted on behalf of two children, aged 8 and 13, following the death of their mother.
The curator acting on behalf of the children claimed their mother, Zodwa Mnisi, died due to the negligence of the staff at the Philadelphia Hospital in Dennilton.
It was claimed that Mnisi was sent home with her sister, who had to take care of her, but was not given the proper medication or instructions on how to care for her.
It was further said that, given her condition, she should have been transported home by ambulance, or should have been taken to another hospital.
Mnisi, as soon as she arrived at home, asked her sister for a glass of water.
When the sister returned with the water, Mnisi was found dead in the chair in which she was sitting.
According to medical evidence, a clot developed in her brain when she was moved from her hospital bed. The clot moved to her heart and caused her death.
Mnisi was admitted to hospital on August 7, 2010, after she was run over by a car. She suffered extensive injuries, including two broken legs and a broken pelvis.
The curator acting on behalf of Mnisi’s kids, Holiday, 14, and Ennocent, 8, claimed R482 000 from the Limpopo MEC for Health.
This was towards their upkeep as their mother was their sole provider, as well as R16 000 towards her funeral costs.
Mnisi’s sister testified that the hospital called her to come and fetch her, as there was a strike and the hospital could not take care of the patients. She was given tablets and told to bring the patient back as soon as the situation normalised.
As the ambulance drivers were also on strike, Mnisi’s family had to transport her home in a vehicle.
Doctors testified that the situation at the hospital was tense, as strikers were protesting outside.
They threatened to throw the patients out of the beds if they were not discharged.
The doctors said they had no choice but to send the patients home, as their lives were being threatened. The doctors and nurses who were left at the hospital had to leave. If they left the patients behind, there would have been no one to take care of them.
The court was also told that the patients could not be sent to another hospital, as it was a nationwide health strike which affected all the hospitals in the area.
The doctors agreed that the woman should not have been discharged, given her condition and that she definitely had to be transported by ambulance to another hospital. But, they said, given the situation, there was nothing they could do.
Judge Billy Mothle, in turning down the claim, said: “This was clearly an emergency situation which presented circumstances under which the discharge of the patients was forced on the hospital. It was done under circumstances that were not normal.”
He concluded that the hospital staff could not be said to have been negligent under these circumstances.
Pretoria News