The principal responsible for the Mpumalanga health department, MEC Sasekani Manzini, has scored another court victory in a long-running medical negligence battle after the Mbombela High Court rejected a mother’s attempt to appeal the dismissal of her claim over her disabled child’s neurological condition.
Acting Judge Lesego Montsho-Moloisane on Tuesday dismissed the application for leave to appeal, finding there was no sound basis to conclude another court would reach a different outcome.
The case arose from the birth of a girl, identified only as MK, at Mayflower Clinic in Empuluzi on March 18, 2016.
Her mother sued the MEC for Health on her behalf, alleging that a nurse instructed her to get off a maternity bed and that the baby subsequently fell onto the floor during delivery.
She alleged the incident caused the child’s cerebral palsy and neurological disability.
The High Court initially dismissed the claim in November last year, after finding that she had failed to prove negligence or a causal link between the conduct of healthcare workers and MK’s condition.
The mother returned to court seeking permission to appeal that decision. Her application was filed about 73 days outside the prescribed 15-day period. The court nevertheless condoned the delay, finding it would be unfair to punish a mother acting for her disabled child for failures by her lawyers.
The reprieve, however, did not rescue the appeal itself. At the heart of the case was whether MK actually fell during birth and, crucially, whether medical evidence supported the contention that such a fall caused her neurological condition.
The court found serious difficulties with that version. Montsho-Moloisane said the mother’s accounts of what happened differed between her pleadings, evidence in court and versions given to medical experts.
Her particulars of claim stated the baby fell while she was standing. During evidence, however, she said she was climbing back onto the bed when the baby emerged and that a nurse told her the child had fallen.
An obstetrician was allegedly told she had been unattended to during delivery and the baby fell on her head, while a paediatrician received another account involving a nurse picking the baby up from the floor.
“It has to be pointed that the version given by the Plaintiff at the trial court is contradictory to each of the versions she gave to Dr Songabau, Dr Lefakane and the case pleaded in her particulars of claim,” the judge said.
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The medical evidence also proved decisive.
Hospital records showed that when MK was examined after admission, “no problems were noted”. Radiologists who later examined MRI evidence found generalised brain atrophy but no evidence of a head injury.
Medical experts also identified intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), which obstetricians agreed could be associated with severe neurological consequences.
Neurologist Dr Mudau conceded under cross-examination that IUGR could have caused MK’s severe neurological condition and that, had she suffered head trauma, evidence of it should have appeared on the MRI.
Montsho-Moloisane said this rendered the alleged fall improbable in the absence of medical evidence demonstrating head trauma.
“I am therefore satisfied that the Plaintiff failed to prove, on a balance of probabilities, any negligence on the part of clinic midwife, Sister Mhlanga or of doctors and nursing staff at the hospital or any causal nexus between the neurological condition of baby MK and any of the employees of the defendant,” she found.
The judge concluded that the mother’s proposed appeal did not meet the legal threshold requiring a reasonable prospect of success.
The application for leave to appeal was dismissed, with no order as to costs.
- The Mbombela High Court rejected a mother's application to appeal the dismissal of her medical negligence claim against Mpumalanga health MEC Sasekani Manzini.
- The claim involved her disabled child, MK, who was born at Mayflower Clinic in 2016 and alleged to have cerebral palsy caused by a fall during delivery.
- The High Court found inconsistencies in the mother's accounts and no medical evidence supporting that the child fell or suffered head trauma.
- Medical experts highlighted that MK's neurological condition could result from intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) rather than birth trauma.
- Acting Judge Lesego Montsho-Moloisane dismissed the leave to appeal, stating the mother failed to prove negligence or a causal link, and the appeal lacked reasonable prospects of success.
