Pretoria - The mother of a boy born more than 10 years ago at an Eastern Cape hospital may proceed with her R29 million in damages claim against health authorities after it transpired that her son suffers from cerebral palsy.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect her son’s identity, for years never imagined that her son’s condition was related to the treatment rendered to her and the baby following his birth at the St Barnabas Hospital.
It was only years down the line, when she met another mother with a child suffering from the same condition and heard her story, that she began questioning whether the hospital staff were perhaps negligent during birth, which resulted in her child’s condition.
On the other mother’s advice, she went to see a lawyer, who agreed to assist her.
But the problem was that the mother had only instituted her action against the Eastern Cape Health MEC in 2018 – long after the claim had been legally prescribed.
The MEC objected to the claim on this technical ground and said the mother should have instituted the claim within the six months following her child’s birth.
The high court earlier rejected the MEC’s objection, but she appealed to the Supreme Court.
Apart from claiming R29 106 761 for damages on behalf of her son, the mother also claimed R500 000 in her personal capacity for emotional shock, trauma, pain and suffering.
The mother applied for condonation of the late filing of her claim and said as a lay person, she had no idea that she could institute legal proceedings, let alone what the time frame was in which to do so.
She was admitted to St Barnabas Hospital in May 2012, and after a “complicated labour” gave birth. At the time of her delivery, she was not informed by the doctors or the nursing staff responsible for her care and that of her baby that there were any complications during the delivery that could impact adversely on the health of her baby.
She remained in hospital for a week after the delivery, during which time her baby was kept in the nursery. She recalled that her baby did not cry at the time of birth.
It was noted by the court that the mother had a limited school education and could hardly be expected to be knowledgeable regarding the medical symptoms reflective of any paediatric abnormality.
A medical report prepared in 2018 by a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist, who reviewed her medical records from the hospital and consulted with her, noted that while the newborn baby was not placed on oxygen or drips, the baby “looked floppy and dull”.
The hospital apparently never explained the condition of the baby to the mother.
She told the court that she accepted that the child’s abnormality was due to an unanticipated and unavoidable event at the time of his birth.
“I am a lay person in respect of legal matters and medical issues. I accepted that the staff at the hospital where I was treated at the time knew what they were doing and acted appropriately,” she said.
It was only when she met the mother who is in a similar position that she realised that the hospital may have been at fault.
The court said it was uncertain whether by this stage the mother had any appreciation of what cerebral palsy was, or its possible causes.
“What is apparent from the pleadings is that after exchanging her experiences with the other lady, the respondent was advised to contact Nonxuba Attorneys with a view to claiming damages arising out of the alleged negligent treatment her baby received, resulting in her baby having cerebral palsy.”
The Supreme Court held that the mother could not be blamed for instituting her claim at such a late stage.
Pretoria News