Judge orders health ministry to pay parents N$1.2 million after stillbirth
Otjiwarongo State Hospital’s medical team should have treated a high-risk pregnancy as an emergency, a judge has ruled after a woman gave birth to a stillborn baby at the hospital.
Judge Beatrix de Jager in a ruling against the Minister of Health and Social Services said the stillbirth of the baby in March 2022 was the result of medical negligence.
She ordered the ministry of health to pay the parents of the stillborn girl N$1.2 million.
The order was made in a judgement handed down in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.
De Jager found that the death of Yvonne and Rodney Pollmann’s daughter was caused by medical negligence, resulting in intense pain and suffering for the couple.
The Pollmanns arrived at Otjiwarongo State Hospital on 6 March 2022, as Yvonne was experiencing excruciating abdominal pain and backache.
Her pregnancy was considered high-risk, De Jager noted in her judgement.
In spite of this, doctors and nurses at the hospital failed to monitor Yvonne or her unborn baby and ignored her and Rodney’s pleas for an emergency caesarean section (c-section) for almost 12 hours.
The unborn baby showed signs of distress after excessive doses of the labour-inducing medication Cytotec were administered, but medical personnel did not immediately act on those signs, resulting in a shortage of oxygen supply to the baby and a stillbirth thereafter.
‘BEGGING FOR HELP’
Dionne Beukes, a clinical psychologist who had seen the couple after the incident, explained that Rodney was an employee at the hospital and trusted the staff to help his wife, only to find himself fruitlessly begging them for help.
She informs the court in an affidavit that Yvonne thought she would never be able to have children and when she became pregnant at the age of 38, she pinned all her hopes on the baby.
“The anguish and pain she went through in the days she had to wait and then give birth to a stillborn baby have traumatised her,” Beukes reports.
“They believe if they had been assisted earlier, their baby would have been alive,” she says.
De Jager said Dr Varnia Wicomb, a medical doctor who also provided evidence in the case, stated that the death of baby Pollmann is “a medical tragedy”.
De Jager recounted Wicomb’s evidence: “Poor obstetric decisions were made from the antenatal booking up to the induction of labour and timing of the emergency caesarean delivery. Basic obstetric management protocols were not adhered to. That is unacceptable – even in low-resource settings like Otjiwarongo State Hospital.”
She also stated in her judgement: “The plaintiffs pleaded for an emergency c-section, but they were ignored. While that could not constitute negligence in itself, taken in the context of the ensuing chain of events and the resultant stillbirth, it was negligent to ignore their pleas. For the same reason, it was negligent to make [Yvonne] wait for several hours before a c-section was performed in circumstances where it was required as an emergency.”
De Jager further said: “There can be no doubt that [Yvonne] suffered more physical pain than she had to. There can also be no doubt that [the couple] suffered mental pain due to the stillbirth, their pleas for help being ignored, the poor care they received and the anger and disappointment they experienced through their feelings of helplessness and powerlessness.”
She also remarked: “Losing a baby on the day the baby was supposed to be born and start life on earth at the hands of the health sector mandated to provide health and doctors who had to take the, Hippocratic oath, is a traumatic event no parent should face.”
De Jager ordered the health ministry to pay Yvonne N$700 000 and Rodney N$500 000 and to also pay their legal costs in the matter.
The Pollmanns, who were represented by lawyer Caridad Harases, initially sued the ministry for N$4 million.
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