Gauteng’s Health MEC is being sued by a woman who emerged from a Caesarean birth at a state hospital minus her uterus, despite medical staff not having discussed it with her first – and who then failed to provide any counselling afterwards, she said.
The Gauteng High Court heard that she was admitted to George Mukhari Academic Hospital in 2016 to give birth, but had started bleeding during the C-section, at which stage her uterus was removed.
The mother accused the medical staff of negligence, but the doctors told the court it was a life-threatening situation and they had no option but to perform the emergency surgery.
They said they had to do this to save her life – and that the patient had discharged herself so no counselling could be provided.
The Mercury reports that the mother, who was 25 at the time, said she had gone to a clinic when her waters broke but was referred to the hospital as it was suspected the foetus was in distress.
At the hospital a long wait ensued before anyone attended to her, and after examination, it took 16 hours before the Caesarean section was finally done.
She said she had been taken to the theatre earlier for the procedure but she was told there was no doctor available.
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Hours later, nurses took her back to theatre where she was given three injections. According to her, she woke up only two days later in the intensive care unit.
She testified that a professor and his team examined her and asked how many children she wanted. She told him three; he told her unfortunately she would never be able to have any more. She said a student doctor later said, “please forgive us”, and other nurses, who read her medical file, kept on apologising to her.
Thereafter she became very emotional and depressed, and the professor promised to obtain counselling for her, but after seven days of nothing happening, she discharged herself.
A year later she had an unexpected telephone call from a doctor who was conducting research about her case. He told her he had read her medical file… and she then approached an attorney to institute a claim against the health authorities.
It was testified on behalf of the hospital that they did their best to attend to patients. One of the doctors testified that the uterus removal could have been because the patient had developed an infection, or “it could have been a mistake”.
In finding the hospital negligent, the court said the hospital falls within the category of having properly trained doctors and nurses, medical equipment and a 24-hour theatre to conduct procedures. It is also a training hospital, and from the time the decision is made to perform a Caesarean until the procedure is actually performed, should take no more than an hour.
In this case it was delayed for 10 hours.
The MEC was held liable for 100% of the damages the mother could prove she had suffered.
The Mercury PressReader article – Damages for mom who lost uterus in Caesarean (Open access)
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