Five years after winning a 10-year negligence battle in the Supreme Court of Appeal against the Eastern Cape Health Department, Felicia Meyers is still homeless and destitute, and awaiting a court date to determine the amount of money to be paid to her.
In March 2010, Meyers (56), from Gqeberha, had undergone what was supposed to be routine laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery at Livingstone Hospital to remove her gall bladder. But two perforations of her bile duct left her in agony and she was forced to have more surgery to fix it.
The Sunday Times reports that she took her complaint to the Eastern Cape High Court (Gqeberha), and lost. Her case was heard on appeal by a full court of the Eastern Cape and dismissed.
But the Supreme Court of Appeal granted her leave to appeal, and subsequently ruled in her favour.
It found the provincial Health Department was liable for the damages Meyer had suffered as a consequence of the injury inflicted during surgery by Dr Richard Vogel.
The court ordered the department to pay her costs of the hearing, including the fees of their expert witness.
However, five years later she is still struggling to survive – broke and homeless. Desperate, she contacted the Sunday Times asking for assistance.
“I worked as a security officer at the stadium here in Gqeberha. But a patrol of the stadium takes two hours and after the two operations I just couldn’t do it anymore because of the pain,” she said.
Meyers, who is divorced, has spent the past 15 years bouncing from family and friends to living on the streets, and is fed up.
“The lawyer who handled my case all the way to the appeals court, Lineen Swarts, did not communicate with me at all. I even walked to his office to ask for a case number so I could go to the court myself to ask for the date. But the clerks said I had the wrong case number, that one was for someone with the surname Oliphant,” Meyers said.
Swarts denies this claim.
For now, Meyers is living with her daughter in Gqeberha, but said “this can’t go on forever”.
“Everywhere I have stayed in the past 15 years, I always knew there was a limit to how long I can live on the kindness of others.”
Eastern Cape Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo told the Sunday Times the matter is listed on its system as “dormant”.
“From our records, the matter was filed for R500 000 but it is now dormant with a zero balance,” Kupelo said.
He could not say whether the R500 000 had been paid out to their lawyers or was merely an estimate of costs.
The Clerk of the Eastern Cape High Court (Gqeberha) Denim Kroqwana, said the application for a quantum date – to assess the payout amount – was only filed on 4 April last year.
Approached for comment, Swarts confirmed the matter had not been finalised.
“We are waiting for a date in respect of quantum. We have approached the registrar (of the Eastern Cape High Court) about the delay in allocating a trial date on quantum,” Swarts said.
He denied only applying for the first time in 2024 and supplied proof of an earlier application in August 2020.
Asked about the complaints by Meyers regarding poor communication and the wrong case number, he said: “The merits of the case have been completed as it is written in the judgment.”
He denied Meyers had been given a wrong case number at his office.
“She only comes crying to my office to ask for money. The last time was on 14 April. She also asked me for money on 25 February and 25 March. If there was a mistake with the case number, typos happen. I have nothing to hide. Remember, all documents are signed by the state advocate, so if we made a typo they also did not pick it up.”
Sunday Times PressReader article – Let down by doctors, lawyers, courts (Open access)
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