A patient who was badly burned and subsequently scarred after being washed in boiling water in 2014 has been awarded almost R1.3m in compensation, after a court ruling of negligence.
The Limpopo High Court (Polokwane) ruled that the Health MEC of that province was responsible for the patient’s damages at Seshego Hospital, reports The Star.
While the patient, Thabang Lebogo, could not exactly recall what had happened to him, the court found it was highly probable that nurses had boiled water in an urn before washing him with it.
Lebogo was admitted to the hospital in November 2014 for severe vomiting and abdominal pain, and after being given a sedative, fell asleep. When he awoke, he found big parts of his body had been bandaged.
While he had no recollection of what had happened, the nurses claimed he awoke in the early hours and took a shower – under boiling water – himself, thus suffering the second degree burns.
However, the court rejected this.
His mother testified that the hospital had phoned her to say her son had been burned, and when she arrived in the ward, he was covered in bandages, with a cut above his left eye and on his chin.
Counsel for the health authorities told her that her son’s sedation wore off earlier than expected, and that, according to nursing staff, he awoke at around 3am and went to the bathroom for a shower. He fainted and burned himself.
The mother denied this, saying she knew there was no hot water at the hospital – that the staff used urns to heat up the water to wash patients.
Lebogo testified that there was no warm water at the hospital and that after his injuries, staff continued to wash him from water warmed in an urn and poured into a basin.
A nurse testified that Lebogo had turned on the hot water in the shower and burned himself, and that they had heard him screaming.
She said they found him standing in the bathtub, but then he slipped and fell when they tried to help him out: she said the hospital did have warm water that day and denied nurses ever warmed water for bathing purposes in an urn.
Judge Marisa Naudé-Odendaal said the hospital’s version was improbable and not true, and issued a finding of negligence.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Health MEC to pay woman R4.4m after hot-water burn
MEC to pay after toddler burnt trying to leave locked ward
Newborn dies after being placed in warmer, MEC wants ‘action’