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News - Crime & Courts: 'Baby blind, deaf after hospital bungle'

A six-month-old baby went into a West Rand hospital to be treated for an ear infection, only to be discharged almost a month later nearly blind, and deaf in one ear.

Now a Honeydew couple are suing the Life Wilgeheuwel Hospital, claiming one of its nurses acted negligently while treating their baby.

The hospital says an investigation is under way.

Speaking exclusively to The Star, Kogie, 38, and Rodney Subramoney, 40, said they took their baby to the hospital to be treated for a severe ear infection. The child was admitted, and over a period of several days was given an intravenous antibiotic, Rocephin, through a drip and had grommets inserted.

The baby was discharged and the parents were told to bring her back to the paediatric ward on October 2 for the final dose of the antibiotic. It was then that things went wrong, said Kogie, a human resources manager.

The couple say they told the nurse treating Laila that her drip cord was filled with blood, but she ignored their concerns. Instead, the nurse "returned with a syringe and flushed the drip without first removing the bandage and examining Laila's hand", said Kogie.

She claims she also told the nurse "there was a bubble in the syringe". Again, the nurse didn't acknowledge her concern.

Rodney, a banker, was holding Laila on his lap when the nurse began administering the antibiotic. Laila began to cry hysterically, Kogie said.

Three times, she said, she and her husband asked the nurse to stop the procedure because Laila was "crying profusely, appeared to be choking and was not taking in any air".

But the nurse continued, said Kogie.

"Eventually I screamed that Laila was not breathing. The nurse finally stopped," she said.

Then, she alleged, the nurse took Laila from Rodney and "walked casually across to the procedure room with her on her hip". Her "casual reaction", Kogie said, didn't indicate that Laila "had in fact stopped breathing completely".

A doctor was attending to a patient in the procedure room, but the nurse holding Laila did not alert her, Kogie claimed.

"She walked over to a cupboard, still carrying Laila on her hip, who was hanging there limp and lifeless," said Kogie.

The nurse, she alleged, spent a few moments fiddling with the packet of an oxygen mask.

"I grabbed the packet from her, trying to tear it open. The nurse was saying in a low voice that the baby was not breathing," Kogie said.

Laila had turned a purplish grey colour and her eyes had rolled back, said Rodney.

Kogie said she screamed for someone to help her baby and said it was only then that the doctor became aware of the situation. The nurse casually held Laila up in the air and announced that the baby had stopped breathing.

"Laila was placed on the bed. Milk began to run out of her nose. The doctor checked on Laila's vital signs and we overheard her say there was no heartbeat or pulse," said Kogie.

"I screamed for them to bring her back," she said.

The doctor worked on Laila for some time before she was finally taken to intensive care and placed on life support.

"The doctor later said Laila had been dead for a period of time before being revived. Had that doctor not been in the procedure room that day, our baby would have died," said Kogie.

Laila was on life support for several days and in ICU for about three weeks, said Kogie.

In that time, Laila had a seizure and underwent a battery of tests, including two lumbar punctures.

The incident left Laila blind and deaf in one ear. She is also no longer able to hold her head up and crawl or sit, apparently as a result of a loss of oxygen that left her neck muscles weak.

"She is like a month-old baby," her distraught mother said.

"When she opened her eyes it was as if she was looking right through me," said Kogie, adding that her daughter now has to see several specialists.

Laila was discharged last week.

"She has some of her vision back, but she still cannot sit or crawl. She cannot eat properly," Kogie said.

"When I asked the hospital manager whether the nurse had been suspended, he told me that he didn't think it was fair to suspend her until they do an investigation," Rodney said.

Yesterday, the couple's lawyer, Stephen Flowers, said they were drafting a summons to be issued against the hospital.

Life Healthcare Group spokeswoman Marietjie Shelly said an internal investigation into the incident was being conducted.

"Hospital management regard this incident in a serious light," she said.

"The first assessments indicate that further investigations are needed. Nursing specialists are also involved in the investigation and assessment of the actions taken by the nursing staff who were involved."

This is just awful! I would have thought it is standard to suspend a staff in that sort of situation with investigation pending.

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Deafness

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