She sustained irreversible brain damage after a failed Caesarean operation

A FORMER teacher in Mpumalanga has been paid a whopping R8 million by the provincial health department following a botched operation.

But Tembelihle Cleopatra Msibi is just one of many individuals paid by the state due to medical negligence.

Msibi sustained irreversible brain damage after a failed Caesarean operation at the Piet Retief Hospital in 2002.

Msibi, a former grade 1 teacher, was 28 when she had an emergency Caesarean with her second child at the hospital.

Nurses and doctors at the hospital apparently failed to incubate her or provide her with oxygen during the operation and afterwards left her alone in the recovery room in an unconscious state without resuscitating her or providing her with oxygen.

It was also found the doctors and the hospital did not have spinal block anaesthesia available for the operation.

As a result Msibi is now almost blind, suffers from poor coordination and balance and has a spastic left arm and leg.

Her memory, speech and impulse control were also severely affected and she can no longer read or write and suffers from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

But Msibi's payout is not the highest paid by the province.

In January last year the department paid R13 million to TW Magolo for negligence at the Mmametlhake Hospital after her newborn baby was not "treated to a required standard".

In March this year the Eastern Cape health department paid a local woman R16 million after her child suffered irreversible brain damage when nurses at Bhisho Hospital refused to schedule an emergency Caesarean section.