A legal secretary and one-time passionate ballroom dancer‚ Farenchia Cummings‚ has been paid out R11-million in damages after losing her full-term baby and‚ later‚ her right leg‚ due to medical negligence on the part of Settler’s Public Hospital in Grahamstown.
Cummings suffers from a rare clotting disorder. Despite knowing that and having treated her with anti-coagulants in the past for deep vein thrombosis (DVT)‚ Settlers hospital failed her when she was nine months pregnant with her baby boy‚ E-Jay.
Not only did the hospital allow her pregnancy to continue beyond nine months despite her condition‚ but it kept her on an anti-coagulant known as Clexane for too long during her pregnancy‚ which contributed to E-Jay’s death in utero.
Her ordeal began in 2015 when the then 33-year-old fell pregnant with E-Jay.
Attorneys Brin Brody and Sandra Amm from Wheeldon Rushmere and Cole – where Cummings works – say her due date was late October 2015. By November 5‚ she had still not given birth.
According to court papers‚ a doctor in the maternity ward advised her to continue with Clexane until the birth of E-Jay and she was sent home.
By November 16 Cummings noticed E-Jay was not moving and she was advised he had died in the womb. She was again admitted to Settlers‚ this time to have her dead baby removed.
The health department conceded there was negligence and settled an amount of close to R11-million in damages on Cummings‚ said Brody.
– Daily Dispatch
https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2018-07-06-keen-dancer-gets-damages-payout/
Source: TMG Digital.
