Mother failed to prove negligence at birth
A woman who took the North West Health MEC to court after she accused nursing staff at Makgobistad clinic in Kuruman of being negligent when she gave birth in 2003, failed to prove negligence, the SCA has ruled, according to News24.
The woman first instituted a claim for ‘delictual damages’ in the North West High Court (Mahikeng) against the MEC, as the employer of the nursing staff at the clinic at the time.
She argued the MEC was ‘vicariously liable’ for the negligent conduct of the staff who attended to her after her admission.
She claimed the negligence had resulted in her baby developing cerebral palsy.
The woman said the nurses failed to attend to her baby properly and failed to administer oxygen to the child when necessary. She also accused the nurses of failing to enlist a gynaecologist, a qualified doctor or other suitable specialists to examine and properly treat her baby.
She said she gave birth in a panel van without being monitored, or the assistance of nurses at the clinic.
The SCA found that the High Court was correct in that no evidence pointed to what steps the nursing staff could have taken, but had failed to take.
The court also found that the ‘late diagnosis of brain damage … coupled with the many years that elapsed before medical experts could put the pieces together, worsened by the loss of critical medical records, resulted in this case being one of the most unfortunate cases to establish negligence and any causal link between the two and the injury suffered. The balance of probabilities favoured the nursing staff as it pointed that they did what they could do and as expected of a reasonable person in the circumstances’.
According to the News24 report, Judge Constance Mocumie, who penned the judgment, said: ‘The ineluctable inference must then be drawn that, the fact that the damage was only picked up six months later, is an indication that the damage was ongoing after birth. As no abnormalities asserted themselves at the clinic, it cannot be said that the nursing staff fell short of the standard of reasonable nursing staff in a position similar to them.’
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
