Cape Town - The Health MEC has lost an appeal against a professional negligence case, worth R3.8 million, in the Western Cape High Court.
The MEC had brought the action in a case, where a woman had claimed the money in respect of future medical costs, past and future loss of earnings, and general damages – citing the negligence of hospital staff, after her child was born with brain damage.
The child suffered from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, a type of brain dysfunction that occurs when the brain doesn't receive enough oxygen or blood flow for a period of time, and numerous other disabilities.
The mother was admitted into Tygerberg Hospital, with labour pains, on March 1, 2015. After receiving some monitoring, her membranes were ruptured, and she was given Oxytocin, a drug used to cause contraction of the uterus to induce labour, and to aid the delivery of her baby.
Her baby boy, known only as K in the court papers, was born on the same day, with brain damage. After delivery, he was admitted into the intensive care unit and, later, into the neonatal ward, for two weeks.
Later, he was transferred to Khayelitsha Hospital for another two weeks, after which both mother and child were discharged. The child continued to suffer from many complications and was repeatedly treated for numerous conditions.
The mother testified: “During 2015, when my baby was six months, I noticed he was not developing as other children do.
"During my reviews at Tygerberg Hospital in late 2015, I sought clarity from the hospital about the late developmental stages of my baby and I was advised that my child will not be like other children."
She was told that the child would be late in milestone development, due to some disability, but was not told as to the nature and extent of the child's disability.
In early 2018, she was advised by elders in her community to seek legal advice.
In May that year, she consulted with Dr Yatish Kara, a paediatrician, who explained that K’s disability was due to medical negligence caused by the Tygerberg Hospital staff during delivery.
The MEC had appealed the original court’s decision, on the grounds that it took the mother from 2015 to 2018 to seek advice about her child, and said she should have said something when she was advised about K’s condition at Tygerberg.
Judge Nobahle Mangcu-Lockwood said: “There are no facts proffered by the MEC as to why the respondent must be reasonably expected to have been dissatisfied with the advice she was given.”
Mangcu-Lockwood found that there was no basis on which to interfere with the decision of the original court ruling on the matter.