Tuesday, 19 March, 2024
HomeMedico-LegalMother asks court for permission to lodge prescribed claim

Mother asks court for permission to lodge prescribed claim

A Midrand mother says only realised when her baby girl was six months old that the child suffered from cerebral palsy, allegedly due to a lack of oxygen during birth. Pretoria News reports that she has now approached the North Gauteng High Court in a bid to obtain permission to institute her R5m claim outside the time frame.

Mapula Kganyago said at first she thought this was fate and due to natural causes. It was only three years later that she realised that the hospital staff could be at fault.

Kganyago said that towards the end of her pregnancy she had beenreferred to the Dr CN Phatudi Hospital in Tzaneen, where she was told she was not in labour and that she had to go home. She went back to the clinic that night as the pains persisted and a nurse there gave her a letter to give to the doctor at the hospital recommending a C-section.

Her mother handed the letter to a nurse at the hospital. Kganyago said the nurse was rude and asked how her mother could allow her to do a C-section as ”this would kill her”. She said the nurse then tore the letter up.

The next day a doctor asked the nurses why she had been admitted for so long, without giving birth. He then advised that she be booked in for a C-section.

But Kganyago said nothing was done over the next few days, other than the nurses telling her she was not ready to give birth. She said she complained about being in pain, but her pleas were allegedly ignored.

Eventually on the fourth day another patient saw her plight and called the nurses. By then she had already delivered the child in her bed.

The application to claim outside the prescribed time has meanwhile been postponed indefinitely.

[link url="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/mom-claims-r5m-for-negligence-after-baby-suffers-cerebral-palsy-30695061"]Pretoria News report[/link]

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