A man has filed a case in the Labasa High Court against the Labasa Hospital and the Attorney General following the death of his mother on Monday after a surgery to remove stones from her gallbladder.
The lawyer of Naleba, Labasa resident Roneel Prakash through documents filed in the court says on or about the 28th of April, Prakash’s 47 year old mother, Kushma Wati was admitted to the Labasa Hospital with a working diagnosis of presence of gall stones in her bladder.
Sushil Sharma says after reading and analyzing x-rays and scans the hospital staff told his mother that the doctors will carry out a surgical operation of the removal of the stones but they failed to explain the pre-surgical and post-surgical procedures and the effect of the surgery before the operation.
He says the hospital failed to obtain a written consent from Prakash and the consent was only obtained from Wati however she was not given the opportunity to consult her family or Prakash before the surgery.
Sharma says the surgery was conducted on or about the 28th of April but Wati was unable to regain consciousness and despite the request by the family members to the hospital to engage a specialist to diagnose the cause or reason for Wati to not regain consciousness and promptly make a referral to the CWM Hospital or a specialist, they failed to do so until Tuesday.
The lawyer says she was finally transported to the CWM Hospital by air flight and was unconscious and no consent was obtained from Prakash or her family members.
He further says Wati was confirmed dead at the CWM Hospital at about 11pm.
Sharma says he and Prakash made several verbal and written requests to the hospital and the Permanent Secretary for Health for the Ministry to make necessary arrangements to carry out a post mortem and transport the body but it had not eventuated.
He says all this and in particular the surgery was a result of negligence of the staff of the hospital.
The lawyer also says the hospital failed to carry out thorough investigations before informing Wati that she requires a surgery to removes the gallstones.
He adds they failed to inform Wati the procedures involved in the pre-surgical and post-surgical operation and they failed to obtain the written consent from Prakash before transporting Wati from the Labasa Hospital to the CWM Hospital.
Sharma says as a result of the conduct of the hospital for its medical negligence, Wati and Prakash suffered losses and damages.
They seek for an order that the Labasa Hospital provide Wati’s full post-mortem report, $11,000 in damages and cost associated with this case.
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong says they are sorting out issues regarding the post mortem and transferring of the body according to the approval processes.
The case will be called in the Labasa High Court tomorrow.
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