Cape Town – A Gauteng woman reportedly won a R2 million lawsuit against a medical facility after her ring finger was amputated following inadequate treatment.
The woman’s ring finger was reportedly bitten by robbers who tried to remove her wedding ring, reports said.
The woman told the Gauteng High Court that medical staff and a doctor at the emergency unit of Kloof Hospital were negligent in treating her bite wound.
According to IOL, AW Malan and her husband rushed to the medical facility after armed robbers assaulted her and her husband in front of their home during a robbery in January 2016.
A few days later, Malan allegedly experienced excruciating pain on her ring finger and her general practitioner referred her to an orthopaedic surgeon who treated her, the report said.
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However, months later Malan’s finger was amputated.
She then filed a R2 million lawsuit against Dr du Toit Incorporated medical firm for wrongful and negligent breach of legal duty, said the report.
The doctor who treated Malan reportedly claimed they had professionally treated Malan’s wounds and was adamant that she did not inform medical staff she was bitten, reported TimesLive.
The doctor maintained that if Malan had stated the cause of her injuries, her treatment protocol would have been very different, the report said.
If she had done so, her treatment protocol would have been very different, the doctor said.
However, having heard expert reports during the trial, Judge Harshila Kooverjie found the medical facility to have wrongfully and negligently breached its legal duty to Malan, reported The South African.
“Therefore, had there appropriate treatment been administered, the circumstances Mrs Malan found herself in could have been avoided. In Mrs Malan’s case, I find that the treatment was inappropriate.”
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
