A couple from Bon Accord, north of Pretoria, is claiming more than R20m in damages in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria after the negligence of Tshwane District Hospital staff left their son with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, says a Pretoria News report.
In court papers, the parents said Johannes Jonker suffered such severe brain damage owing to oxygen deprivation that he could not even feed by mouth.
After hearing the evidence of doctors and nurses, and that of medical experts, Judge Wendy Hughes ruled that the staff at the hospital, involved in Johannes’ delivery seven years ago, were indeed negligent. The Health MEC was 100% liable for the damages Johannes’ parents, Liz-Marie Booyse and Jacob Jonker, a bus driver, could prove they had suffered, she ruled.
Their claim include R7.5m for three around-the-clock caregivers to take care of Johannes for the next 40 years.
The report says the court found that had the nurses reacted when they detected the foetus was in distress, and if the new-born was correctly resuscitated shortly after birth, this tragedy could have been avoided. When the mother was admitted to the hospital, the foetus was perfectly healthy.
That the nurses who assisted in the delivery dragged their heels, and the fact that they did not call a doctor when things went wrong, will now cost the taxpayer dearly.
The main midwife on duty, only identified as Sister Mafolo, admitted that the management of the mother and child was of substandard quality and unacceptable. She also admitted that she failed to call a doctor that night when things went wrong.
Counsel for the MEC argued that even though it could be accepted that the conduct of Mafolo was wrong, and that the baby had suffered as a result, it couldn’t be said that the care was negligent and the cause of the baby’s brain damage.
However, the report says, Judge Hughes disagreed, finding that the nurses, especially the midwife in charge, should have realised that the foetus was in distress and what the results could be. The worst blunder, she said, was the lack of resuscitation of the baby shortly after birth.
“The only conclusion is that, if the proper procedures had been followed, the result could have been avoided,” the judge said.
[link url="http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/mec-sued-for-r20m-after-baby-suffers-brain-damage-at-birth-8322349"]Pretoria News report[/link]