A young woman is suing the Eastern Cape department of health for R30m, claiming that because her caesarean section had been botched in 2015, urine was now leaking out of the wound.
Tabisa Ndongeni was a first-time mom and she was told that her bladder had been stitched together with her womb, causing a number of problems that also affected parts of her intestines.
Just days after her baby girl was born, doctors took her back into surgery and removed her womb and parts of the affected intestines.
Ndongeni told the Daily Dispatch last month that she had undergone a number of operations.
“Pee is seeping through the wound and as a result I often get infections. Doctors apologised for the mistake and I was told they had placed a plug in my bladder but it has not stopped.
“I am tired of all the operations and I do not trust the doctors here anymore.
“I gave birth at Mthatha General Hospital and I was transferred to Nelson Mandela Academic where I was told they would fix the mistakes made at Mthatha General,” she said.
“I want to get the money so that I can go to a private hospital and ask them to do plastic surgery on me.”
In her court papers, Ndongeni accuses the healthcare professionals in the hospital of failing in their responsibility to care for her and says this was a breach of their legal obligation towards her.
Ndongeni said she was experiencing psychological shock and trauma.
“[She] is permanently disfigured,” say her papers.
The department says Ndongeni’s bladder was injured and not ruptured.
“The subtotal hysterectomy was the only life saving exercise in the circumstances,” the court papers read.
“In both the Mthatha General and Nelson Mandela Academic Hospitals, Ndongeni received a fair and reasonable medical treatment.”
The matter, heard in the Mthatha High Court, was postponed but the new date has not yet been announced...