Neglectful hospital cost young footballer her leg
When, at the age of 12, Ayanda Mashilo hobbled into Mamelodi Hospital after taking a tumble at soccer practice, she had no open wound, she could walk, and her knee, although painful, was only slightly swollen.
Eighteen days later she had been to the brink of death, and her right leg had been amputated.
The sole cause of her losing her leg — which put an end to her dreams of becoming a professional soccer player — was the negligence of medical staff, according to the High Court in Pretoria.
Mashilo developed life-threatening sepsis and osteomyelitis — an infection of the bone — which went undetected by staff until her increasingly desperate mother, Maseli Mashilo, who had watched her daughter's condition deteriorate, demanded she be moved to another hospital.
Her transfer to Steve Biko Academic Hospital came in the nick of time to save her life, but was too late to save her leg.
After initially being sent home by staff at Mamelodi Hospital, Mashilo was later admitted for four days but discharged without seeing an orthopaedic surgeon or having blood tests done.
Days later, gravely ill and unable to walk, she was readmitted. But her treatment was no better and her condition worsened until her move to Steve Biko.
In her judgment, Judge Annali Basson said medical records of Mashilo’s treatment at Mamelodi Hospital were “conspicuously absent”, leading to the “inescapable conclusion” that these records would have shown that there was no proper management and treatment by the hospital’s medical personnel.
Basson ruled that the provincial health department was liable for damages and must pay all her legal fees.
Mashilo’s lawyer, Adele van der Walt, said experts had been appointed to evaluate Mashilo’s damages. This would include the cost of prosthesis, lifelong therapy, consultations with doctors, physiotherapy, loss of income potential and general damages for pain and suffering.
“We have applied for a trial date for quantum [damages]. Ayanda should receive her payment in 2018 and it will be between R6million and R10-million,” Van der Walt said.
Mashilo told the Sunday Times that the ordeal had changed her life drastically.
“It is still difficult to come to terms with my disability. What makes it even harder is to know I wasn’t born like this,” she said.
Mashilo had dreamt of playing for the national women’s soccer team, Banyana Banyana.
A midfielder at the Rethabiseng women’s soccer club in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria, she had loved reading about soccer stars and had been determined to become a professional player.
“I never missed a game for my team. It was the only thing I did after school.
“Everything I did was around soccer,” she said.
Mashilo is now on an IT learnership programme for the disabled.
“The past six years have been difficult. Children still tease me when they see me walking with crutches.
“It is difficult to ask people to help me with things I would be able to do myself when I had both legs,” she said.
I never missed a game for my team. Everything I did was around soccer Ayanda Mashilo Victim of negligent medical personnel at Mamelodi Hospital