Damages for mom who lost uterus in Caesarean

A FIRST-TIME time mother who was healthy when she went to a state hospital to deliver her baby, but came out of a Caesarean section minus her uterus, thus not being able to have any more children, has sued the Gauteng Health MEC for damages.

The woman told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that she was admitted to the George Mukhari Academic Hospital in 2016 to give birth. As she started bleeding while having a Caesarean section, her uterus was removed.

The mother said she entered the hospital as a healthy woman and had no idea what led to her uterus being removed. She was never told about this prior to the operation, nor did the hospital offer her any counselling afterwards, she said.

She blamed the medical staff of being negligent, but the doctors told the court it was a life threatening situation and they had no other option than to perform the emergency operation, removing her uterus.

The doctors said they had to do this to save her life. As for counselling, the court was told that as the patient had discharged herself, they did not get around to counselling her.

The mother, who was 25 at the time, said she went to a clinic when her water broke. She was referred to the hospital as the nurses at the clinic suspected the foetus was in distress.

The mother said she had to wait for hours at the hospital before anyone bothered to attend to her. Once she was examined, it took 16 hours before the Caesarean section was done.

The woman said she was taken to the theatre earlier for the Caesarean section, but no surgery took place ; she was told there was no doctor available to do the procedure.

She was taken back to the theatre hours later and given three injections. According to her, she only woke up 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 more children. She said a student doctor later told her “please forgive us” and other nurses, who read her medical file, kept on saying “sorry” to her.

She was in tears all the time and depressed and could hardly attend to her newborn. The professor promised to obtain counselling for her, but the woman said after seven days of nothing happening, she discharge herself. After a year she got a telephone call out of the blue from a doctor, who was conducting research about her case. He told her he 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. The only reason they could think of that there was no doctor to perform the Caesarean section earlier, was because there may have been more pressing cases to attend to. One of the doctors who attended to her, testified that the removal of the uterus could have occurred 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 the decision to perform a Caesarean until the procedure is performed, should not take more than an hour. But 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.