Hospital sued for amputation resulting from inadequate care

YOU do not mess up with a wedding ring finger, as a Pretoria East medical practice discovered.

The hospital is facing a R2 million lawsuit from a woman whose finger was amputated after it was bitten by robbers attempting to remove her wedding ring.

The patient, identified only as AW Malan in a Gauteng High Court, Pretoria judgment, claimed that the medical staff and doctors who attended to her wounds were negligent in not treating her adequately for the bite.

The wound later became septic and her ring finger had to be amputated months later.

According to Malan, she clearly told the staff who attended to her at the emergency unit of Kloof Hospital, that she had suffered a human bite to her finger.

She instituted the claim against Dr du Toit Incorporated – the medical firm which attended to her that day – for wrongful and negligent breach of legal duty.

The defendant, on the other hand, said it had been professional in its dealings with Malan and treated all her wounds, including her finger. The medical staff who assisted her told the court Malan never told them she had been bitten by a robber during the altercation.

According to them, she mentioned she had been hijacked and a robber had pulled her finger. Biting, however, was never mentioned, they said.

The court was told that in January 2016 Malan and her family were accosted in front of their home during an armed robbery. She and her husband were assaulted. Malan said she had visible injuries to her face and left hand, particularly her ring finger.

She was rushed to the emergency centre at Kloof Hospital for medical treatment and was later discharged.

A few days later the pain in the left ring finger became unbearable and her hand became swollen.

She urgently contacted her general practitioner and was immediately referred her to an orthopaedic surgeon, who then treated her.

Months later her left hand ring finger was amputated.

While Malan is blaming the medical practitioners who treated her for the loss of her finger, they maintained that she was thoroughly examined and treated.

The medical firm said it had no idea that the injury to her finger was caused by a human bite, as she had never told the medical staff about this.

But Malan insisted she had and she had asked the doctor on duty whether she would require antibiotics and anti-retroviral medication, but he told her it was not necessary.

Malan said her injuries were visible as she had been kicked and hit several times by the assailants. They focussed so much on her ring that she was dragged to the getaway car as they had difficulty in removing the ring. They even threatened to shoot off her finger, she said.

Thus, Malan said, as her finger was the focal point, there was no doubt she had told the medical staff about it.

A nurse testified she had dressed the finger with a “ring elastic”, a type of gauze, as it was a “superficial laceration” as only the surface layer was off.

Judge H Kooverjie, however, found, on a balance of probabilities, Malan did tell the medical staff she had been bitten by a robber.

After listening to expert evidence, the judge concluded there was also a link between the treatment she had received that day in the emergency room and the fact her finger later had to be amputated.

One of the experts told the court “the amputation of the patient’s left ring finger appears to have been primarily due to the damage to the joints of the finger, caused by bacterial infection”.

He found the infection appears to have been caused by the patient having sustained a bite wound on her finger.

The expert confirmed that a human bite requires concerted treatment. This included prophylactic antibiotics, hospitalisation, intravenous antibiotics and debridement.

“Therefore, had the appropriate treatment been administered, the circumstances Mrs Malan found herself in could have been avoided … I find that the treatment was inappropriate,” the judge said.

He ordered the defendant was liable for the damages Malan could prove she had suffered.