Keen dancer gets damages payout
Hospital found to be negligent, R11-million paid for traumatic loss
A legal secretary and one-time passionate ballroom dancer Farenchia Cummings has been paid out R11-million in damages after losing her full-term baby and, later, her right leg, due to medical negligence on the part of Settler’s Public Hospital in Grahamstown.
Cummings suffers from a rare clotting disorder. Despite knowing that and having treated her with anti-coagulants in the past for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), Settlers failed her when she was nine months pregnant with her baby boy E-Jay.
Not only did the hospital allow her pregnancy to continue beyond nine months despite her condition, but it kept her on an anti-coagulant known as Clexane for too long during her pregnancy which contributed to E-Jay’s death in utero.
Her ordeal began in 2015 when the then 33-year-old fell pregnant with E-Jay
Attorneys Brin Brody and Sandra Amm from Wheeldon Rushmere and Cole – where Cummings works – say her due date was late October 2015. By November 5, when she was already way past her due date, she had still not given birth.
According to court papers, a doctor in the maternity ward advised her to continue with Clexane until the birth of E-Jay and she was sent home. By November 16 Cummings noticed E-Jay was not moving and she was advised he had died in the womb. She was again admitted to Settlers, this time to have her dead baby removed.
The court papers said the hospital and its staff had failed in its duty of care to Cummings. It said when she was admitted in October she was already overdue due to her DVT defect.
“[Her] Clexane medication should have then ceased and E-Jay induced as [she] should never have carried E-Jay to full term having regard to her medical condition.”
About a month later, Cummings suffered numbness in her right leg and was referred to Settlers to treat her for DVT. She was treated for five days and was then informed she had no clots and did not need to go onto an anti-coagulant. This proved almost fatal to Cummings. She later collapsed in agony. On being admitted to Settlers, she was treated with morphine for the pain but was still not given any form of anticoagulant.
A day later a doctor declared she had no blood circulation to her leg. Rushed to Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth, her leg was amputated above the knee. A few days later the hospital performed a second am- putation, this time at the level of the hip. The health department conceded there was negligence and settled an amount of close to R11-million in damages on Cummings, said Brody.
“I was always independent and active. I loved my ballroom dancing and went professional in the 1990s and represented South Africa at Sun City,” said Cummings.
Brody says because of the “high amputation” she will have to have a special prosthesis made which would have to be replaced every three years.
Health department spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said he had not had time to respond in full to questions at the time of writing but he did confirm that the department was implementing a multi-pronged medico legal strategy focusing on administrative legal, clinical and mediation interventions. He said the department was making progress in the defence of medico-legal claims as well as interventions to root out corrupt elements. He revealed that:
● Since 2010, the department has cumulatively paid R1.1-billion of medico-legal claims and a further R433.5-million on legal fees.
● For 2017-18 alone, the department paid R423.4-million and R44.452-million to the state attorney.