Mpumalanga mother awarded R540,000 after negligence leads to child's cerebral palsy

The Mpumalanga MEC for Health has to pay a mother R540,000 in damages after her baby boy was born with cerebral palsy due to the negligence of the staff at a government hospital in the province.

The mother initially claimed R4 million in damages before the Mpumalanga High Court, which was sitting in Mbombela. Her child had, meanwhile, died at the age of six, and the mother only claimed general damages on behalf of herself for the hardships she had to endure while looking after the child until his death.

The court earlier ruled that the provincial health authority was liable for 90% of the damages the mother could prove she had suffered.

The mother blamed the fact that her son was born with brain damage on the negligence of the medical personnel at the Embhuleni hospital.

It was found that the negligence culminated in the child developing cerebral palsy due to a lack of oxygen at birth.

The mother was admitted to the hospital in February 2017 to deliver her baby. Following her admission to the hospital, the plaintiff endured prolonged hours of labour.

The result was that the then-unborn baby suffered foetal distress and brain injury, as a result of which he suffered permanent brain damage, disability, and cerebral palsy.

In determining the amount of damages payable to her, various experts, including a specialist physician, a neurosurgeon, a physiotherapist, and an occupational therapist, gave their inputs to the court.

The experts saw the child when he was five, a year before his death. It was noted that he could not communicate, and he was multi-disabled with severe intellectual impairment. He was unable to move independently, had to be fed by others, and was incontinent.

The child was unable to lift his head when placed in a prone position. He could not sit, stand, crawl, or roll, and he was wheelchair-bound.

In deciding the amount of damages, Acting Judge MR Moleleki referred to case law, in which it was said that although the law attempts to repair the wrong done to a sufferer by compensating him or her in money, there are no scales by which pain and suffering can be measured.

The judge said he cannot blindly follow the amounts awarded in similar cases. “The awards in those cases are not to be slavishly followed as they are guidelines only.”

In reducing the mother’s R4 million claim, the judge said: “I have sadly come to the realisation that money cannot compensate the plaintiff for that which the child experienced.”

zelda.venter@inl.co.za