Case Medical Center Dragged To Court For Life-threatening Negligence

Case Medical center has again been dragged to court for causing the amputation of the patient’s leg out of negligence.

In court documents seen yesterday at the High Court Civil Division, Robert Majara Kabiito asserts that he fell off the stool and ran to Case Medical Center but the doctors neglected him until he sought other doctors who declared his leg gone and the cut it off.

“The plaintiff’s leg was amputated as a result of the negligence of medical personnel at Case Medical Center. The Plaintiff was made to incur and is incurring unnecessary expenses and has suffered and will continue to suffer loss of income as a result of the negligence of the medical personnel of Case Medical Center which special damage is being claimed,” Majara states in his court documents filed on Monday seeking Shs400m in compensation.

He claims to have fallen off a stool while at his home in Najjera, a city upscale residence in February 2014 and injured his leg.

He was immediately rushed to Life Link Clinic in Ntinda for medical attention but there were no X-ray facilities which forced his family to rush him to Kadic Hospital.

He narrated that while at Kadic, an X-ray was done confirming that he had sustained a tibia plateau fracture on his leg and it necessitated an immediate operation.

He was however using a UAP medical insurance card which was not accepted at Kadic forcing him to go to another clinic where his insurance card is applicable.

He said he was then taken to Case Medical Center which accepted his card but doctors there just gave him pain killers and told him that the operation could not be done on that day because the orthopedic surgeon was upcountry on a burial.

“Throughout this time, the plaintiff was in so much pain despite the painkillers given to him by the medical personnel. The next day, the surgeon one Dr. Justin Okello examined him but declined to carry out the operation before clearance from UAP because it was a Sunday so he had to wait till Monday for clearance,” Majara states in his affidavit filed in court.

The operation took place on Monday after which he lost the sense of touch and could not feel or move his leg.

He stated that in March 2014 while he continued going for regular routine dressing up of the wound, Dr. Okello told him that there was a problem and that some mistakes had been made that needed another minor surgery, but he objected.

He said his brother also a medical doctor, helped him find an orthopedic surgeon at Bugolobi Medical Center who diagnosed a severe compartment syndrome he developed after the injury and advised amputation of the leg.

He was amputated on March 28, 2014.

When contacted, Case Medical Center claimed Majara lost the leg out of his own making.

According to a report issued by Dr. Justine Okello who operated Majara about what transpired, she had advised a second minor surgery and Majara did not return so she cannot be blamed or the hospital.

“Mr. Majara did not come back only to learn that he was being treated from Bugolobi Medical Center a week later and what happened thereafter we do not know,” Okello stated.

This is a second high profile reported case of negligence against this hospital.

In January 2012, Case Medical Center orthopedics consultant Dr. Frederick Mutyaba was pinned before the medical council by a fellow doctor Samuel Kaggwa of neglecting his wife Alice Nabyonga Kaggwa also former Resident District Commission (RDC) Wakiso district.

Kaggwa said Nabyonga was suffering from backache and immediately she was operated upon on November 1, 2011, she developed acute pain in her right leg but his efforts to call Mutyaba to rectify what could have gone wrong during the operation were futile as he switched of his phone.