Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Gauteng mother has won a case of negligence against the provincial health MEC after her young child suffered burn wounds while in the care of nurses at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg.
According to the court papers, the incident happened on 14 June 2017 while the child was hospitalised for seizures.
The 3-year-old was burnt on her left leg after the mother had briefly returned home to take a bath.
When the mother went back to the hospital, she found her daughter had been burnt.
Judge Y Carrim, acting in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, said the matter was certified trial-ready on 8 August 2022 when an order was made to separate the merits from the quantum of the plaintiff’s claims.
This meant that the case on whether the hospital was negligent was separated from the adjudication of how much the health department would pay the mother if it was found negligent.
Judgment on the merits was delivered on 15 May. A year ago, the provincial department confirmed it faced medico-legal claims worth R1.6 billion due to alleged medical negligence.
Carrim said:
Carrim then ordered that the defendant was liable for 100% of the damages suffered by the child in June 2017.
The judge further ruled that the department was liable for all reasonable costs incurred by the mother to obtain medico-legal reports from Dr Nosipho Maponya, a paediatrician, including consultation, preparation and participation in meetings regarding the determination of the applicant’s claim.
Carrim said the mother had left her child “in the care of nursing staff” when she went home to wash herself.
“She left the child in the care of the nursing staff, and when she returned later that morning, she found her child with bandages to treat a burn to her left leg. She was told by hospital staff that her child was burnt by a wall-mounted heater which she came into contact with when she attempted to leave the ward,” according to the court papers.
The mother and the health MEC’s office appointed Dr Maponya to determine the merits.
In her report, Dr Maponya recorded that the child achieved her gross motor, fine motor, speech and social development within normal limits. She said the child was locked alone in the ward, and then started crying.
Looking for her mother, she tried to jump out the window because the doors were locked. Dr Maponya said the hospital management was informed about the incident.
She concluded that the child’s burn wound and keloid formation resulted from negligent medical staff at Tambo Memorial.
She recommended that the child be referred to a plastic and reconstruction surgeon to manage and reconstruct the scar and keloid formations. She also recommended that the family be referred to a psychologist to manage the post-traumatic disorder after the burn incident.
However, the MEC’s office disputed that the hospital staff were negligent.
They argued that the injuries sustained by the minor were because she attempted to climb out of the window. The defence argued it was not foreseeable that the minor would try to climb out of the window.
Carrim said it was common knowledge that young children were likely to become distressed when separated from their mothers.
“More so, a child who had suffered the recent trauma of a seizure was now placed in unfamiliar and strange surroundings and whose mother had just left her.
“In my view, the medical staff at the hospital, who are purportedly trained to take care of patients, especially minor ones, could reasonably have foreseen that the toddler would at some point start looking or crying for her mother.”
Carrim said the defendant should pay the mother’s taxed or agreed high court costs of the suit, as agreed between parties regarding merits. This also includes the costs of counsel for preparation and appearance.
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