Jessi's mom tells of forboding
2003-11-10 22:51
Cape Town - In what is believed to be the biggest lawsuit lodged against South African medical practitioners, a distraught mother told the High Court here on Monday how her baby daughter had been left severely brain-damaged after a simple hernia operation.
Marchel René and Hendrik van Antwerp are suing three doctors from George for R100m after the 1996 operation.
The claim is against doctors H W Graser, A L Swart and J Scholtz.
Their daughter, Jessi, now seven, was three months old at the time of operation.
A month after the tragedy, the couple emigrated to America in the hope of getting better medical care for their child. Jessi has been left blind and cannot walk or talk. She has to be fed through a tube.
According to the child's mother, Jessi had been the liveliest of all her babies before the operation.
She said that before the operation, Dr Graser had assured her her baby was in good hands.
After the operation, Jessi was placed in an incubator and taken to intensive care. A Dr Van Zyl told the Van Antwerps that everything would be fine, said the mother.
She knew however, that something was wrong when the nurses brought her coffee and stayed to chat, said Van Antwerp before bursting into tears.
The case continues before Judge Dennis van Reenen.