A Gauteng High Court judge has ruled the Mpumalanga MEC fully liable for a baby being born with severe brain damage, despite hospital staff trying to blame the mother because she took “good luck herbs” before the birth in 2010.
Judge Anthony Millar found the baby was born with cerebral palsy due to the negligence of staff at Themba Hospital in Kabokweni. Although the the mother urgently needed to undergo a Caesarean section, the procedure was delayed for hours, reports The Mercury.
She was first admitted on 15 December 2010, but discharged the next day as she was deemed not to be in labour. The foetal heart rate was normal during this period.
She was re-admitted two days later, but again discharged as the staff found she was not yet in labour. She returned later that day and was admitted.
It was documented in the hospital records that she took “two spoons of isiwasho today” as well as “imbita to speed up her labour”.
The mother progressed through latent labour with no obvious concerns regarding the foetal condition. However, the next day, concerns were raised as she had not yet gone into labour and it was decided that a C-section be performed.
The baby was delivered nearly three hours after the decision had been made.
According to medical experts, the procedure would be classed as a category 1 Caesarean section, meaning there was an immediate threat to the life of the mother or the baby. As such, delivery should have been within 30 minutes of the decision time.
There were also no hospital notes regarding the condition of the foetus for more than four hours before the procedure was performed, meaning the foetal condition during the last four hours of the prolonged labour was unknown.
The child was diagnosed with severe mixed-type cerebral palsy, which included moderate to severe intellectual disability, multiple contractures, and severe developmental delays. Now 14, he is completely dependent on others for his daily functioning.
While the mother blamed hospital negligence for her son’s condition, the hospital blamed the mother, blaming the herbs she had consumed before the birth.
In giving evidence, the woman said that she had taken ‘isiwasho’ the day before the birth but had not swallowed it. She said that as a result of her having been to the hospital and been sent home because she was not in labour, she felt that her “luck was bad”. The mixture she took was meant to change her luck and the preparation was in fact called “luck”.
She denied taking “imbita”. She testified that the former was to bring luck and was not ingested, whereas the latter was a herbal mixture which was ingested.
The judge, in finding in favour of the mother, said despite the recognition that she was in obstructed labour and required a C-section, it was never explained why foetus monitoring ceased for more than a four-hour period.
“It is self-evident that if the monitoring of the plaintiff (mother) and foetus had continued, then distress in the foetus would have been detected earlier and the Caesarean performed earlier,” he said.
Millar added that in the absence of any adverse effect on the foetus being established in consequence of the use by the mother of the herbs, or of Themba Hospital being without enough staff or facilities to properly care for her and the unborn child, the sole cause of the child’s condition was the staff’s failure to act sooner.
The amount of damages payable to the mother will be determined at a later stage.
The Mercury PressReader article – Negligence, not herbs caused brain damage (Open access)
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