KZN Health to pay damages to Durban family in negligence case
A Durban family is yet to find out the amount it will be awarded after the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health was found liable for damages suffered by a mother and her son due to medical negligence.
The boy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy after suffering complications during his birth at Wentworth Hospital ten years ago.
According to his mother - the boy was born with severe mental and physical handicaps as well as irreparable brain damage.
Judgment in the matter was handed down in the Pietermaritzburg High Court last week.
The department had argued that the boy’s cerebral palsy was due to his being exposed, by his mother, to various risks as a result of her having contracted an infection and smoking cigarettes while pregnant - as well as his having suffered a stroke.
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However, two of the department’s own expert witnesses conceded that neither her infection nor her smoking - could have caused his condition.
Ultimately, the court found that the department wasn’t able to dispel the opinion proffered by the mother’s expert witness - that the baby had been deprived of oxygen at some stage during birth - and that this was as a result of medical negligence in that this was a high risk birth and there should have been more vigilance and more regular monitoring.