Moms campaign for brain injury fund

A group of mothers with children suffering from brain injuries have appealed to the Department of Health to come to their aid.

|||

Pretoria - A group of mothers with children suffering from cerebral palsy and other brain injuries, mostly due to a lack of oxygen during birth, has appealed to the Department of Health to come to the aid of all parents faced with this difficulty.

They argued that turning to the courts and waiting for the wheels of justice to turn often took many years. The parents, during that time, have to foot the hefty legal bills while they only receive a disability grant of R1 500 a month.

“This is not enough to pay for the special food, specialised equipment, physiotherapy and taxi fares to take the child to the doctor. There are just so many expenses,” said Aniccah Moch. She is the mother of 2-year-old Onthotile, who is a quadriplegic spastic after he suffered a lack of oxygen during birth.

The little boy has to be fed with the help of a feeding tube and cannot walk or talk. “He is completely reliant on me,” she said.

Moch has instituted legal proceedings against the health authorities, as she claims his condition is due to the negligence of the staff at a hospital north of Pretoria, where he was born. But she, like many other parents, will likely have to wait for years before their cases are sorted out.

The eight mothers entered into law suits against the health authorities a year ago. They have sent a proposal to the Department of Health in which they have urged the government to take responsibility for these children.

They simply want the government to rectify the mistakes made in public hospitals, which led to these children being permanently disabled.

“The brain injury of a child is a traumatic experience for all and it is not something we want to make money out of.

“We simply want support to cope with the expenses. The courts are flooded and these cases take far too long. The little victims, meanwhile, are robbed of early medical intervention. No money can compensate for that," the mothers said in their memorandum.

They proposed that government create a brain injury fund in cases where the staff at State hospitals was negligent, leading to the children being born with brain injuries.

“A brain injury in a newborn requires ongoing therapy. A way forward for a government institution faced with such allegations is to offer support in medical bills, care-giver assistance, counselling and rehabilitation,” the mothers wrote.

Another proposal was to ensure that individuals working in the medical industry had insurance, should anything go wrong during a medical procedure. The mothers pointed out that in private practice medial insurance for doctors, among others, was compulsory.

Doctors and nurses working for the state, who do not have medical insurance, must face damages claims in their personal capacity and if found to be liable, have to foot the bill from their own pocket.

Alice Dladla, who works in the office of the Speaker of the City of Tshwane, is claiming multi-millions in damages from the Gauteng MEC for Health and the gynaecologist who delivered her son. The specialist in this case does not have medical insurance.

Dladla’s son Oratile will be 8 in November. He suffered a lack of oxygen when he was born in 2008 in the Pretoria West Hospital. This rendered him a spastic quadriplegic.

It is claimed that both the nurses as well as the doctor were negligent, as they did not monitor the foetus before birth and did not render the necessary care to the baby immediately after he was born. Both the doctor and the nurses denied any liability or wrongdoing.

Dladla, 30, started giving evidence on Thursday in the High Court in Pretoria, where she told Judge Bill Prinsloo that apart from her job at the city, she had also started a day care centre for children with disabilities in June.

The court will first determine who can be held responsible for the child’s condition. If anyone is held accountable, the court will at a later stage determine how much compensation the mother should receive.

The trial was set down for three weeks and a string of experts are expected to testify.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

Pretoria News