The North West High Court has cleared Zeerust Hospital from negligence after a pregnant woman who was admitted at the hospital was discharged with a dead foetus following a miscarriage.
A woman who was only identified as LLM, aged 29, approached the high court seeking R1.8 million in damages claiming that the hospital failed to identify that she was pregnant with twins and left a dead foetus in her womb for 30 days.
LLM was admitted at Zeerust Hospital on April 5, 2018 after she had been experiencing pains and bleeding the previous day.
She testified that she was pregnant and “close and or ready to deliver” when she was admitted.
She said she explained her symptoms to the medical staff and further mentioned that she was pregnant.
She was then taken to the theatre but she doesn’t know what happened as she was under anaesthesia and only regained consciousness in the afternoon.
When she woke up, the doctor and the nurse came and explained that they took out some clots but didn’t say anything about pregnancy and she also didn’t ask. She only complained about pains and was given pain killers.
She was discharged from hospital after two days but she was still in pain.
A month later, on May 5, while at home, she felt severe pains in her abdomen and went to Dinokana Clinic where they removed the baby.
“They examined my private parts and saw that the baby was visible…When I arrived home, clots came out,” she said.
To support her statement, she submitted a report by Dr E O Moalusi who assisted her at Dinokana clinic.
“Missed miscarriage and twin, she had an incomplete miscarriage in April, was evacuated in Zeerust hospital and discharged. Subsequently carried the remaining unevaluated twin,” read the report.
She also brought in expert report compiled by Dr Donald Amoko who is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist.
Amongst other things, Dr Amoko’s report mentioned that when a patient experiences a miscarriage, the hospital must conduct a thorough examination including ultrasound before instituting a definitive treatment.
Dr Amoko said in LLM’s case, the hospital failed to conduct a thorough evaluation because if it was conducted, a twin pregnancy would not have been missed.
“Furthermore it is mandatory that a patient who has been to theatre for evacuation, must have post-evacuation ultrasound before discharge,” he added on his report.
However, acting judge Okgabile Dibetso-Bodibe was not happy with Dr Amoko’s report and said largely based on LLM’s “say-so”.
“No research had been done to assist the court on the medico-legal understanding of the concepts twin pregnancy, miscarriage in relation to stillbirth given the period of gestation, missed miscarriage, incomplete miscarriage, retained products of conception clots, membranes and placenta,” she said.
Dibetso-Bodibe said it was also odd that the expert report said nothing about the personal qualifications and experience of Dr Amoko especially concerning the matter in court.
“An expert is an expert based on the years of specialised experience, research work done, text books written etc. In my view, the report has failed to pass the muster of an expert report,” she said.
The acting judge also scrutinised LLM’s contradicting testimony regarding how far she was with her pregnancy because at one point she said “close and or ready to deliver”.
“The plaintiff told the court that she is the one who informed the medical staff at Zeerust hospital that she was pregnant and that she was two months and three weeks. According to Dr Amoko, the plaintiff’s gestation was of three months.”
Based on LLM’s lack of strong evidence, the judge dismissed her case of medical negligence.
“The evidence before the court is insufficient to attract delictual liability in general. The lack of medical records and a well-reasoned expert opinion left the court with general assumptions …” she said.
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