Johannesburg -
The High Court in Pretoria has ruled that the minister of defence must pay damages after a botched surgery on an up-and-coming rugby player at 1 Military Hospital, the Saturday Citizen reported.
The amount of compensation has not yet been determined.
In 2007, Michiel de Goede, then a matric pupil, ruptured a tendon in his knee during a school rugby match. He had been offered a contract with the Sharks and was set to begin a professional rugby career the following year.
According to the report, De Goede went to the hospital for treatment but he was misdiagnosed with a sprained knee, and left with a bandage.
Eight days later, a military orthopaedic surgeon operated on his knee, after meeting De Goede for the first time as he was being wheeled into theatre.
In 2008, after undergoing another operation in the same hospital by a different doctor, he was set to start his contract with the Sharks, but the team's biokineticist realised De Goede's patella was in the wrong position.
He was referred to a knee specialist surgeon, who operated again and found that De Goede had developed progressive osteoarthritis. The damage to his knee was irreparable, and he would never be able to play rugby again. - Sapa