Gasabo Intermediate Court in Kigali claims they lost some hearing records in a medical malpractice case against King Faisal Hospital accused of neglecting a woman in labour.
During the hearing yesterday on 13 April 2021, the judge claimed that the court had previously heard the challenge against the admissibility of the case but cited that the records of the hearing were missing in the court system.
The applicant’s lawyers also confirmed that they had concluded that the challenge of the admissibility would be heard in the normal proceedings of the case but records were nowhere to be seen, appalling the applicants.
Kigali Law Tidings put the alleged incident to the Supreme Court authorities who said the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS) keeps records of who visited what case and when.
“It is very easy to know who visited the case and when. The system also records who altered what and when and it stores what was deleted for retrieving” Fred Gashemeza the head of Information Technology at the Supreme Court told us today.
In 2015, a woman in labour went to King Faisal Hospital to deliver but was neglected for nearly 24 hours past the time she was supposed to be taken to the Caesarean section, according to the applicant’s submission.
When operated on, the child was almost dead, recovering in the Intensive Care Unit where it spent some weeks free of charge by the hospital.
Further examinations proved the child had cognitive development disorders, disabling it from either sitting or stand which the report from Rwanda Medical and Dental Council labelled as caused by excessive fatigue during birth, affecting the spinal cord.
During the hearing, King Faisal Lawyer Isaac Bizumuremyi challenged the admissibility of the case arguing that it came in too late.
“The law stipulates that anyone claiming medical negligence should do it within a timeframe of five years. The applicant was received at the hospital in January 2015 and lodged the case in February 2020, a month after the stipulated time” Lawyer Bizumuremyi argued
The applicant’s lawyer Ngabo Audace Muhirwa argued that the timeframe for lodging the case starts from when they realised that the child was affected by the negligence she received at the hospital.
“In 2016, the Rwanda Medical and Dental Council confirmed that the child’s disability was due to negligence that the mother suffered during labour pains at the time of birth,” Ngabo said.
According to Ngabo, the case was lodged on time because it was four years later.
The case will be heard again on 30 April 2021.
Source: Kigali Law Tidings
