King Faisal Hospital will appear before Gasabo Intermediate Court in Kigali over alleged breaching of duty to a woman during labour which is said to have caused permanent damage to the born child.
The case in which the claimant wants Rwf300 million compensation, is scheduled for 14 January 2021 a month after another case of mastectomy mistake against the same hospital
The leading public hospital in Rwanda denies the liability, that “the family has no evidence to connect the child’s debility of the back and legs to the negligence the mother allegedly experienced at the hospital”.
According to the submissions of both parties, the alleged negligence took place in 2015 when a woman travailed in labour for nearly 24 hours at the hospital after the time she was supposed to be taken to the Caesarian section.
The two parties will substantiate their arguments as to whether the child’s weakness of the legs and the back are or not connected to the alleged extreme fatigue to the unborn baby during the long labour.
King Faisal Hospital gave the woman a rendezvous for a cesarean delivery on 12 January 2015.
However, the pregnancy was due two days before and was rushed to the hospital but the nurses insisted that she would have a natural delivery instead of the caesarian.
“Medics knew that the woman was supposed to be taken to the C-section prior to the medical examination the hospital had carried out. But they took over a day insisting that the woman would have a natural delivery” the submission says.
For nearly 24 hours, health attendants tried to have the woman have a natural delivery but failed until when a doctor took her to the C-section.
The baby was taken to Intensive Care Unit because it was too fatigued and the hospital consented to give free medication to the child after the bad birth experience.
A year later in 2016 the family reported to the health ministry and the Prime Minister’s office, accusing King Faisal Hospital for refusal to give free medication to the child.
Three years later, the health ministry wrote to King Faisal Hospital, urging them to amicably compensate the family, quoting a report by the Medical Council that the hospital was to blame for the child’s condition.
King Faisal Hospital still insists that there is no written evidence that the woman was to go to the C-section and that there is no evidence to support her allegation of the connection between the way she was treated and the state of the child.
“The medical insurance law does not support compensations to an incident that has no evidence to connect the acts of the hospital to the state of the patient” KFH denies the liability.
Source: Kigali Law Tidings
