updated: 18-Aug-15
Leading personal injury law firm, de Broglio Attorneys, recently settled one of their medical negligence claims for an outstanding amount of R5,040,092.00. It is reassuring that in times of need, such legal services are available to assist those who have suffered at the hands of people they entrusted with their health. de Broglio Attorneys have extensive knowledge and expertize in the area of medical negligence and endeavour to ensure that their clients are compensated for their losses.
36 year old Dalia von Furstenburg* has been left brain damaged and bedridden following a standard elective caesarean section which went horribly wrong due to the extreme neglect and gross incompetence of her treating doctor.
Following her caesarean section, Dalia began to bleed profusely and went into a state of severe shock, eventually becoming unresponsive. Her doctor did not attend to her medical emergency efficiently and eventually she suffered such extreme haemorrhaging that she became brain damaged.
Her husband approached de Broglio Attorneys to attend to a medical negligence case. They took on the matter and were able to establish gross negligence on behalf of the doctor, winning the case in the Bloemfontein High Court.
de Broglio Attorneys ensured that Dalia’s claim considered how she is now fully dependent on others for all her daily activates and how she needs full-time nursing care, and included these costs. They investigated how her severe and permanent mental handicap have affected her life and her employability.
At the time of the caesarean section she had been employed as a senior administrative clerk and now she had been left in a state of employability. The legal team of de Broglio Attorneys ensured they had a strong case against the doctor and sued him for malpractice.
Although bleeding after birth is one of the major causes of maternal death in South Africa, Dalia’s medical emergency was not attended to in time or effectively and the court awarded her R5,040,092.00 as a result of this medical negligence.
The attorney who handled the claim said, “This matter really grabbed my heart. We sat down to consult with the client’s husband before going to trial and discussed the impact that this has had on the both the client and her family. The client’s husband took us through a day in his life and explained the routine they followed to care for his wife that is in a vegetative state due to the negligence of this doctor. Listening to the story was heart breaking! He explained how she needed to be turned every two hours and how he woke up every night to turn his wife next to him. This does not even include the stress he must have been under to care for his two other children and the new born baby. Seeing this man’s strength was humbling and made us want to ensure that we got the best possible outcome! This Doctor showed absolutely no remorse which was infuriating to me. After a lengthy period we won the case and got an excellent outcome. I turned in court to look at the client’s husband and he was crying with relief. He told me he can now finally get his wife the proper care that she needs to live the little life that she has left in as much comfort as possible. Its cases like these that make you love your job!”
*Names have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
Case results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future case.