The Gauteng health MEC has been ordered to pay out over R1m to an elderly woman whose mobility was affected after a botched knee surgery more than a decade ago.
A portion of the amount will go towards paying for domestic assistance while the remainder is for damages.
This judgment is one of many in which the department finds itself having to pay millions of rand in negligence claims. In March, it emerged that the department had paid out R623m to claimants who sued for medical negligence in the first nine months of the 2023/24 financial year.
In its 2022/23 annual report, the Gauteng health department said there were 2,358 verified medico-legal claims against it as of August 31 2022. The department stated the value of medico-legal claims increased by 4% from R17.5bn in 2021/22 to R18.2bn in 2022/23.
Florence Radebe, 64, and the Gauteng health MEC went to court after an operation on July 16 2013 on Radebe’s left knee at a public hospital in the province left her unable to bend her knee. Judgment was handed down in the Johannesburg high court on Friday.
“The aim of the surgery was to replace her left knee with a prosthetic joint. The surgery went badly wrong. Though the knee joint was replaced, Radebe now cannot bend her knee at all. Her left leg is, as a result, stuck in a fully extended position. She has apparently been in this condition for the last decade,” judge Stuart Wilson summarised in his judgment.
The MEC accepted that the knee replacement surgery was negligently performed, and assumed liability for Radebe’s proven losses. In all but two respects, the MEC and Radebe agreed what those losses were.
Khanyisile Ngcobo
www.timeslive.co.za
