Africa-Press – South-Africa. The North West Education MEC has lost an appeal against a High Court ruling for damages to a then-18-year-old matric pupil injured during a rugby tournament, almost 17 years ago.
In May 2006, Izak Foster, now in his 30s, was representing his school Hoërskool Lichtenburg against Hoër Volkskool Potchefstroom when he got injured during the rugby game.
Foster was left paralysed after two first aid personnel carried him off the field without stabilising his neck with a spine board or solid neck brace.
Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) Judge Constance Mocumie started her judgment by explaining that although rugby was a much-loved national sport in the country, it was a dangerous sport in which players often sustained serious injuries.
“Because of all the attendant risks, there has for many years been insistence on emergency measures, including professional first aid services, being available at rugby matches,” she said.
She added:
Foster and his father, Guillaume Foster, claimed damages against the MEC in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria following the May 2006 incident.
The court ruled the MEC was liable for proven damages, however, the MEC approached the SCA to appeal against that decision.
According to the SCA judgment, Foster was tackled by a player from the opposing team and fell to the ground and while on the ground, another player fell on top of him.
Foster sustained a neck injury from the impact.
The two first aid personnel carried him off the field without a spine board or solid neck brace, which caused the second injury, which the damages claim is based on.
Foster was taken to the Potchefstroom MediClinic, where he received treatment before being airlifted to a Pretoria hospital, where he underwent surgery twice.
Despite surgery, doctors informed him that he would not walk again. Foster was discharged after spending four months in the hospital.
The experts who testified in court agreed that the second injury was caused by the first aid personnel.
“It was easy to understand that to carry a person with a suspected spinal injury off the field without carefully stabilising the neck of the person and with their head dangling about may severely aggravate the initial injury,” read the judgment.
Foster stated that while he was lying on the field, he could not feel his legs.
When the two first aid personnel approached him, he told them more than once not to carry him off the field without a spine board.
According to the judgment, Foster said: “I did not know what was wrong with me… I just knew that they should use equipment to carry me off the field, as I did not want anything that was wrong with me to worsen… I suspected I had a neck injury… as they were carrying me off the field, my head fell backwards and frontwards, and my head was loose. I was not able to keep my head still.”
During the trial, it was said that the first aid personnel were “hopelessly incompetent and ill-equipped”.
The MEC’s counsel had conceded that Volkskool as the host school, had to take reasonable steps to ensure that competent and sufficient first aid personnel were at the game in order to deal adequately with foreseeable injuries sustained.
The SCA said Volkskool had hosted sports events, including rugby, for years, adding it should have foreseen that if any neck injury was not treated properly and immediately, it could lead to a spinal injury.
Therefore, the court said Volkskool had to take reasonable measures to ensure the appointment of qualified first aid providers.
But Volkskool “did nothing” to ensure that the first aid personnel were competent and properly equipped to do the job, Mocumie said.
The court said it was on record that the school engaged the services of Kosh Sports and Trauma Services on the basis that a Mr Van Staden was well-known in the area and had provided emergency first aid services for schools in the area.
“And that there had been no previous complaints about the fourth respondent (Kosh Sports and Trauma Services). It was only discovered after this tragic incident that the fourth respondent did not have the necessary qualifications and competence to do the work.
“On the probabilities, reasonable enquiries would have uncovered that Mr Van Staden had a certificate of an ambulance driver… it is on record that Mr Van Staden obtained his certificate as an ambulance driver in 2006.
“The certificate did not mention any of his qualifications. In other words, reasonable scrutiny and even the most basic enquiry by Volkskool would have established very easily that Mr Van Staden of the fourth respondent was not registered and did not have the necessary training required under the circumstances.”
Judge Mocumie found that how Foster was carried off the rugby field caused his second injury.
In addition, she said the steps Volkskool took in preparing the games to prevent foreseeable injuries were not reasonable under the circumstances.
“The appeal, therefore, ought not to succeed,” Mocumie said.
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