Eastern Cape health authorities are liable for damages to a widow after her husband fell from the fifth floor window of the Livingstone Hospital in Gqebera, with the judge saying his death was due to the negligence of staff who under-medicated him and did not properly monitor him for his apparent psychosis.
George Williams was admitted to hospital suffering from severe alcohol withdrawal, or delirium tremens (the DTs), and also, apparent secondary schizophrenia.
However, he died of his injuries hours after falling from a window on the fifth floor. His wife, Jeanine Williams, said if the staff had been more vigilant, her husband might still be alive. In her claim for damages in the Eastern Cape High Court, she said their negligence was to blame.
Acting Judge I Bands concurred, finding that had the man’s medication been adjusted, his death might have been avoided if he had been reduced to a calmer state, reports the Pretoria News.
“This would have enabled the nursing personnel to monitor his vital signs and his condition appropriately until such time as the delirium tremens had abated. He would not have been pacing up and down the ward in a confused, restless, and disoriented state,” the judge said. Thus, he probably would not have fallen to his death.
The patient, an alcoholic, had complained of visual disturbance, dizziness, hallucinations and sleeplessness when he was admitted to hospital, and although he was given calming drugs, like Valium, these had no effect on him.
Although the nursing staff were aware he was very restless, despite the drugs, and paced up and down the passage in the ward, they never told the doctor on duty that the drugs had no effect on him.
After falling out of the fifth floor window, he suffered hypovolemic shock, and died a few hours later.
In her testimony, a medical expert said that delirium tremens was a medical emergency and that immediate management of the condition was necessary. She said it was reasonable to expect the medical staff to know he would have been experiencing, among other symptoms, anxiety, insomnia, visual and auditory hallucinations, confusion and disorientation.
He should have been closely monitored and given sufficient medication until he was calmer.
“Not only was the deceased under-sedated, but there is no evidence that the initial dose, which had no effect, was ever increased as per the published guidelines,” found the judge.
“This despite multiple entries in hospital records that the patient remained confused, disoriented, restless, pacing the passages, and that his symptoms were worsening over time,” the judge said, adding the health authorities were fully liable for the death.
The amount of damages due to the widow will be decided at a later stage.
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