R1.7m for “scandalous” medical treatment

Limpopo health authorities will have to pay R1.7-million to a housewife from Mokopane who received poor treatment at the Lephalale and Polokwane hospitals.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Monday confirmed a settlement between Cornelia Wentzel (49) and provincial authorities as an order of court.
According to court papers the medical staff at the Lephalale and Polokwane hospitals failed to treat her properly for a severely dislocated ankle seven years ago. She had to undergo a series of operations. This left her in chronic pain and with one leg shorter than the other.
Wentzel used to enjoy dancing, jogging and fishing with her husband, but now even battle to clean her home. Dr D. Mare who examined Wentzel said the treatment she received was “scandalous” and the surgeon who operated on her appears to have been incompetent.
Mare said she should have been treated within an hour after arriving at Polokwane to save her foot, but was inexplicably made to wait until the next morning. He said Wentzel needed further surgery but the pain in her foot was presently so bad that she might be better off if her leg was amputated below the knee.
Beeld reports that Wentzel was cleaning the swimming pool at her house when she slipped and dislocated her ankle. She went to the Lephalale Hospital for treatment but was transferred to the Polokwane Hospital because her injury required specialist attention by an orthopaedic surgeon. At the Polokwane Hospital she was made to wait in pain without medication for about 12 hours until she was operated on the next morning.
According to the court papers, the doctor who operated on her told her he did not need x-rays as he knew what he was doing. He proceeded to operate using an epidural anaesthetic. Wentzel was still conscious when the power supply to the theatre was cut off and she was carried on a sheet to another theatre because no trolleys were available. The staff could at first not find the light switch to the new theatre, causing her to become so distressed that she asked for a full anaesthetic.
When Wentzel woke up, and asked for pain medication, staff told her the doctor had left for the weekend without leaving instructions for her further treatment. They refused to help her even when blood started dripping onto the floor from her bandaged foot and told her she should return to the Lephalale Hospital.
Her husband transferred her to her local hospital later that night where a doctor prescribed pain medication. The same doctor kept on treating her for weeks until he removed the plaster from her foot and found that gangrene had set in. She was transferred to the Kalafong Hospital where she underwent numerous operations to save her foot, but was left with a shortened left leg, massive scars and chronic pain.