A judge rejected claims by hospital staff at a Mpumalanga hospital, that a baby was born with severe brain damage because his mother, shortly before giving birth, took a mixture of what she had described as 'good luck herbs.'
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that the Mpumalanga MEC was fully liable for the damages suffered by the mother and child.
Judge Anthony Millar found that the baby was born with cerebral palsy due to the negligence of the staff at Themba Hospital in Kabokweni. While the mother urgently needed to undergo a caesarean section, the procedure was delayed for hours.
The child, now 14 years old, was born in 2010.
The mother was first admitted to Themba Hospital on December 15, 2010, but discharged the next day as she was deemed not to be in labour. The foetal heart rate was normal during this period.
She was re-admitted to the hospital two days later, but again discharged as the staff found that she was not yet in labour. She returned later that day and was admitted to the hospital.
It was documented in the hospital records, that she took “two spoons of Isiwasho today” as well as “Imbita to speed up her labour.”
The mother progressed through latent labour with no obvious concerns regarding the foetal condition. However, the next day concerns were raised as she had not yet gone into labour and it was decided that a caesarean section be performed.
The baby was delivered nearly three hours after the decision had been made to go the caesarean section route.
According to medical experts, the caesarean section would be classed as a category 1 caesarean section, which meant that there was an immediate threat to the life of the mother or the baby. As such, delivery should have been within 30 minutes of the decision time.
There were also no hospital notes regarding the condition of the foetus for more than four hours prior to the caesarean section being performed. This meant that the foetal condition during the last four hours of the prolonged labour was unknown.
The court was told by medical experts that the failure to monitor the unborn child must be seen in the context of the requirement that a foetus in an uncomplicated labour should be monitored half-hourly.
The baby did not cry at birth and both mother and child were discharged from hospital a few days later.
The child was diagnosed with severe mixed-type cerebral palsy, which included moderate to severe intellectual disability, multiple contractures, and severe developmental delays. He is completely dependent on others for his daily functioning.
While the mother blamed negligence on the part of the hospital for her son’s condition, the hospital blamed the mother, based on the herbs she had consumed prior to giving birth.
In giving evidence, the mother said that she had taken isiwasho the day before the birth of the child. She said that in consequence of her having been to the hospital and having been sent home because she was not in labour, she felt that her “luck was bad”. The mixture she took was meant to change her luck and the preparation was in fact called “luck”.
Her evidence was that she had mixed the “luck” with water and taken two teaspoons of the mixture. She placed it in her mouth and then spat the mixture onto her stomach. She was adamant that she did not swallow the mixture but admitted to telling the nurses at the hospital that she had taken the isiwasho.
However, she denied taking imbita. She testified that the former was to bring luck and was not ingested whereas the latter was a herbal mixture which was ingested. They were two different things, she said.
Judge Millar, in finding in favour of the mother, said despite the recognition that she was in obstructed labour and required a caesarean section, it was never explained why for more than a four-hour period, monitoring of the fetus had ceased.
“It is self-evident that if the monitoring of the plaintiff (mother) and fetus had continued, then distress in the fetus would have been detected earlier and the caesarean section performed earlier,” he said.
Judge Millar added that in the absence of any adverse effect on the fetus being established in consequence of the use by the mother of the herbs, or of Themba Hospital being without enough staff or facilities to properly care for her and the unborn child, the sole cause of the child’s condition was the staff’s failure to act sooner.
The amount of damages payable to the mother will be determined at a later stage.
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Pretoria News