BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
High Court has awarded a patience 43.4 million for general medical damages caused by two doctors during surgery at Nairobi Hospital.
Judges George Odunga ordered Paediatric Anaesthetist Dr Praxedes P Mandy Okutoyi and a throat Surgeon Dr Chimmy Omamo Olende working with Nairobi Hospital and Kenya Hospital Association to pay the patient who his name is withheld shilling 43,460,000,00 million.
“The first plaintiff is hereby awarded a total of Kshs. 43,460,0000,000 being damages for pain , suffering, loss of amenities , costs of the minder , future medical expenses and loss of earning capacity to be paid jointly and severally by Dr Praxedes P Mandy Okutoyi and Dr Chimmy Omamo Olende working with Nairobi Hospital and Kenya Hospital Association,” ruled the judge.
The judge also ordered Shilling 1,071,080,00 million being special damages to be paid jointly and severally by Dr Praxedes P Mandy Okutoyi and Kenya Hospital Association to the patience.
The court ordered 1 million to be paid by
Dr Praxedes P Mandy Okutoyi and Kenya Hospital Association to the patience.
The court declared that the purported acknowledgement of debt or guarantee dated 02/04/2005 extracted given by surgeon Dr Chimmy Omamo Olende to Kenya Hospital Association to pay shilling 1,056,490,26 million being cost is unenforceable to the father of the patients.
The award shall actually interests a per court rates from the date of this judgment.
In his 202 judgment, Justice Odunga found that the hypoxic brain damage that was caused to the plaintiff resulted from the failure of the duty of care owed to the plaintiff by Dr Praxedes P Mandu Okutoyi and Kenya Hospital Association.
The judge also found that Dr Praxedes P Mandu Okutoyi failed in her duty to adequately monitor the plaintiff and as a result the volatile agent, Halothane was not titrated to effect leading to cardiac arrest and cyanosis.
He said problem was aggravated by the malfunctioning and failure of the anaesthetic machines to detect the reduction of oxygen level below the minimum set limits.
The first and third defendants were jointly found for the injuries occasioned to the first plaintiff.
The judge found no evidence that the events in the ICU aggravated the injury which had been inflicted on the first plaintiff in the day of surgery.
Justice Odunga further found that injuries occasioned to the the plaintiff were not as a result of surgical procedure and therefore nose and throat Surgeon Dr Chimmy Omamo Olende is not liable.
He said whereas the first plaintiff did not lose his life, the second and third plaintiff have clearly lost any expectations of any acutance from the plaintiff.
The plaintiff filed the case through his parents.
They told the court that, on 8 of February , 2005 while playing basketball at school where he was a form four student and he was in good healthy, he sustained a nasal fracture and was taken to Nairobi Hospital on 11 of February , 2005 by his father at was scheduled for surgery for 10:00 am to rectify the nasal fracture.
According to the judgment it was pleaded plaintiff was admitted into the day care surgery Unit of the hospital for scheduled surgery where the first defedant (Dr Praxedes P Mandu Okutoyi ) was the anaesthetist and Dr Chimmy Omamo Olende was a surgeon assisted by the support other hospital staff.
According to the parents , from the defendants careless, negligent and reckless execution of that surgery for his nasal fracture reduction , the plaintiff in the process sustained hypoxic brain damage which according to the two doctors only noticed when the first plaintiff head was being undraped after the completion of the nasal fracture reduction operation and when the first defendant shouted that the patience lips were blue.
“As a result of the 1st Plaintiff’s health being in near fatal condition with no pulse, the 1st Plaintiff was subjected to cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and upon restoration of his heartbeat was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and remained in the same hospital undergoing treatment until 1st April, 2005 when he was discharged and continued to received treatment thereafter from home and various health institutions,” states the judgement.
According to the Plaintiff parents, the negligence of the Defendants was constituted by the two medical practitioners arriving late for the scheduled surgery and failure to properly and adequately prepare for the same thereby endangering the 1st Plaintiff’s life.
Dr Mandu Okutoyi and Dr Omamo and
failure to carry out the complete history and physical examination of the 1st Plaintiff and/or evaluate the same before rendering an aesthetical treatment.
Dr Mandu failure to make appropriate pre-operation evaluation of the 1 plaintiff thereby leading to the administration of inappropriate and dangerous anaesthesia treatment thereby endangering the 1st plaintiff’s life.
Failure by Dr Mandu to observe proper and reasonable intra-operative care on the 1 plaintiff by not monitoring the 1st Plaintiff’s vital clinical signs and the equipment in the theatre and thereby endangering the 1st plaintiff’s life.
Dr Mandu failure to exhibit reasonable care and skill in the treatment of the 1st Plaintiff prior to, during and after the administration of anaesthesia and the surgery.
He further said it was failure by Dr Chimmy Omamo Olende to carry out complete history and physical examination of the 1st Plaintiff and therefore led to inappropriate treatment and injury to the 1st Plaintiff.
He also accused Dr Omamo failure to take adequate steps to ensure that the treatment of the 1st plaintiff was carried out in accordance with the known medical standards.
It was Dr Omamo failure to adequately attend to the 1st Plaintiff in time prior to and during the surgery and thereby contributing to the injury to the health of the 1st Plaintiff.
He accused Kenya Hospital Association for failure to provide appropriate functional equipment in the theatre.
He accused the association for retaining and holding out professional and non-professional personnel who could not discharge their duties as required of the medical institution.
He said Kenya Hospital Association is holding out to the public a medical institution with inadequate systems of work.
“Failing to monitor the 1st Plaintiff during and after administration of the anaesthesia and during the surgery and failing to monitor and observe the patient at commencement, during and at conclusion of the surgery,” said the plaintiff father.
He blamed the association for for failing to be alert during the entire process of administration of anaesthesia and surgery.
He says they failed to respond to the electronic monitoring equipment that were in the theatre and with alarm mechanisms to warn when the 1st Plaintiff was slipping into danger as happened to the 1 Plaintiff.
He also blamed the association and the doctors to notice whether or not the electronic monitoring equipment in the theatre were working prior to and/or during the commencement of the administration of anaesthesia and surgery.
“Failing to undertake appropriate physical checking of the pulse of the 1st Plaintiff during the administration of anaesthesia and surgery and ailing to undertake an appropriate evaluation of the 1st Plaintiff and the history and tests undertaken to determine the safe anaesthesia that ought to have been administered,” claimed the parents.
He accused the of administering inappropriate anaesthesia to his son and failure to take proper care of the Plaintiff’s health and thereby occasioned him severe and permanently disabling injuries.
He listed several blames including failure to use diligence, care, knowledge, skill and caution in the treatment of the 1st Plaintiff prior to, during and after the operation,exhibiting recklessness, complete disregard of any duty of care to his health while undertaking the treatment on 11/02/2005 and afterwards.
