The low-frequency noise of the ECG machine, the electrodes
stuck onto my skin and the theatre nurse taking notes, all is still vivid in my
mind. I was stark naked in a room filled with people but before I could be too
embarrassed about that, an anesthetist delivered the anesthesia medication
through an intravenous line in my arm and gave me a gas to breathe from a mask.
I checked the clock on the wall at that point and it read
7.10AM. At 38 weeks gestation, my obstetrician had reason to believe my baby
and I were in danger due to various reasons and had to deliver the baby via
Caesarean section.
When I woke up after the procedure, it felt like I had been
asleep for days but it had just been a little under an hour.
I glanced at the clock in the recovery room and it read
8.10AM. I was to later learn that my daughter was born at 7.25AM. Once I was
fully awake, I felt something tightly wrapped around my ankle – it was the BP
machine monitoring my blood pressure. Next, I felt excruciating pain around my
abdomen. I knew the baby was out.
The theatre nurse asked how I was feeling and I told him
the pain was killing me. He said he would give me something for it but needed
to make sure I was awake first.
While I was asleep, the anesthetist had inserted a tube
into my mouth and down my windpipe which ensured I got enough oxygen and
protected my lungs from blood and other fluids. This explained the sore throat.
I was eventually wheeled to the ward where I later met my
daughter after a few hours. I was in pain but relieved that the worst was over.
So I thought.
I would be heavily sedated for the most part but even then,
the pain was excruciating. I struggled to get in and out of bed. I could barely
sit up to feed my baby.
I couldn’t walk upright and worst of all, I wasn’t getting
better but worse off than I was on day one post-surgery. I knew something was
wrong but couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
Ten days after surgery, I noticed some blood tainted liquid
oozing out of my incision site. I had seen my obstetrician the day before and
he had noticed nothing amiss. But I had developed an abscess under my skin on
the incision site; the wound needed to be reopened so that the pus could be
drained and the area cleaned.
For the eight weeks that followed, I had to visit the
doctor’s office every day to get the about 6cm by 7cm wound cleaned with
betadine solution and packed with gauzes. The process was more painful each
time as the old bandage was pulled out and a new one stuffed in. But, the
question on everyone’s lips was, “How did this happen? What went wrong?”
The obstetrician said, “It happens sometimes.” The nurse
who attended to my wound post-surgery said, “The hospital staff didn’t mobilise
you soon after surgery, that’s why.
” My mother, a retired medical practitioner, thinks I was
the “Friday car”. This essentially means after a long week of work and being
the third C-section in a row that morning, the surgeon was probably tired or in
a rush and was bound to make some mistakes.
Surgical site infections are caused by bacteria from the
skin, the operating room, a surgeon’s hands, and other surfaces at the
hospital.
I was fortunate to survive to tell the story but others are
not so lucky. Scores of Zimbabweans across the country are victims of surgical
malpractice and few successfully go through litigation or are compensated. Many
others lose their lives or those of their babies while some develop worse
conditions as a result of botched surgeries.
In 2019, Miss Mongiwethu Mathe (27) had her rectum
mistakenly cut by a surgeon during a Caesarean section to deliver her baby at
Mpilo Central Hospital. As a result, she had excrement coming out of her
privates as the mistake left a hole that now connected her rectum to her vagina.
Despite being told to go back to Mpilo to have the
condition corrected, Miss Mathe found no joy. Two years on, she is still trying
to get the condition rectified.
“I went to Harare for rectum repair but they told me the
damage was too much but they tried their best. I’m still waiting to see how
successful the procedure was; if the rectum is finally closed, then they can
reverse the colostomy,” said Miss Mathe.
She had to have a colostomy bag inserted to collect fecal
matter from her digestive tract.
“The doctor who made the mistake has been mum about it. In
fact, I’m still in credit for the unsuccessful operation. I’ve been getting
help to correct the condition through Amnesty International,” said Ms Mathe.
Her story mirrors that of many others whose surgical
procedures have gone wrong with no clear explanation of what really happened,
who is to blame or if anything can be done to help the situation.
When surgery goes wrong, you may not know who should be
held accountable. It is common for surgeries not to go as planned since the
medical field in itself is an imprecise art. And when an honest mistake happens
or medical negligence takes place, it may be unclear who to hold responsible.
In September, a couple lost an unborn baby at Mpilo Central
Hospital due to negligence after the woman spent more than 48 hours without
being attended to.
The baby reportedly died while the mother was still in
labour.
A total of 378 women died while giving birth in Zimbabwe
last year and of those women, 66 died at home while 312 lost their lives at
health institutions.
It is thought by some medical experts that a medical error
is the third biggest killer. Both ethical and legal responsibility is necessary
for patients to trust the professionals that carry out these surgeries.
Patients need to know that they can be compensated when
medical errors occur.
With liability is the hope that surgeons will not take
extra risks or do things they would not ordinarily do in their practice.
If a doctor does not follow the standard of care when
carrying out their duties, they have to explain their decision.
Lawyer Mr Lison Ncube said if the patient can prove that
the doctor made a mistake or there was malpractice, they can sue the doctor.
“When such cases of surgical malpractice occur, we’re
saying there’s a procedure to follow that wasn’t followed or that wasn’t done
correctly. We’ve had cases where the anesthesia given is not of the right
quantity or quality leading to surgical problems,” said Mr Ncube.
He said litigation of surgical malpractice has not been
successful in Zimbabwe because it is a specialised field which needs experts to
guide the patient.
“Most of us are lay people and when we say a surgery wasn’t
done right, we wouldn’t know exactly what was right or wrong. In most
instances, you’ll need expert testimony. Either other doctors or other
specialists in the same fraternity will have to come in and say in terms of our
procedures, this is not how this thing should’ve been done. But
I’ve noticed over the past few years that we have very few
cases of surgical malpractice that have succeeded in our courts,” said Mr
Ncube.
He said a lot of people may not have taken up their cases
legally because of many reasons.
“They may not know the laws of medicine or the rules of
procedures that doctors undertake. Secondly, there are cost implications. You
also realise that the majority of the people who experience this are people who
may not be able to afford a lawyer to help them take up the case.
Thirdly, some of these cases fail because of lack of
evidence,” said Mr Ncube.
In most cases, he said, one would be required to be
furnished with a paper trail that led to a particular surgery.
“Many times when a case of surgical malpractice occurs, the
doctors themselves are not willing to produce documentation that speaks to the
actual procedure.
Either pre-procedure or during the procedure. You’ll find
that in most Government hospitals, the facilities for all these recordings to
be done are not even available.
They’ll turn around and say I did what I could with the
resources available. In that case, it becomes very difficult for you to be able
to pin a person down,” said Mr Ncube.
He added that most professionals are not willing to give
evidence against their colleagues especially in cases of malpractice. Chronicle
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