A general practitioner in Ga-Rankuwa has agreed to pay damages to the family of an SA Revenue Services employee who died after going into cardiac arrest while undergoing a gastroscopy.
In terms of a settlement reached in the High Court in Pretoria, Dr N E Zitho, a part-time general practitioner and a registrar at Medunsa's anaesthesia department agreed to pay R200 000 damages to the family of Jan Sibiya of Soshanguve.
Sibiya's wife Martinah, his children Klaas and Christina and his mother Kristina initially claimed more than R1,7 million from Zitho for their loss of support after his death in January 2007.
Sibiya was admitted to the Legae Medi-Clinic in Mabopane for a relatively simple gastroscopy procedure in which Zitho was the anaesthetist.
He developed breathing problems and went into cardiac arrest during the procedure. This resulted in his death three days later in the clinic's intensive care unit.
His wife claimed in court papers that Zitho had been negligent by failing to carry out a proper pre-operative examination and unnecessarily placing her husband under total intravenous anaesthesia.
She alleged Zitho had failed to take preventive action when her husband suffered shallow breathing and developed an irritation in the respiratory tube, resulting in cardiac arrest and his subsequent death.
She further alleged the doctor had failed to place her husband on a respirator when he suffered from insufficient breathing, failed to monitor him while he was under anaesthesia and never kept proper records of the events during the procedure.
Court papers showed Zitho had no academic qualification in anaesthetics and had not passed her examinations for the M Med degree in anaesthesia despite being a registrar at Medunsa's anaesthesia department for more than nine years.
Zitho initially denied any negligence in court papers or that her conduct had contributed to, or expedited, Sibiya's death.
Published: 5/18/2010 21:13:33
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