KAMPALA- A couple has dragged Life Link hospital and its doctor to court over what they termed as ‘negligence’ that saw their newly born baby suffer an abnormal breathing up to date.
In their law suit filed before the High Court civil division, Mr Julius Buzibwa and Ms Carolyne Annitah Mbabazi accuse the hospital and Dr Denis Ssozi of taking so long to deliver their child something that caused serious heavy complications to their baby.
The couple through their lawyers Lukwago and Co Advocates want Life Link Hospital to pay them Shs7.9m as special damages compensation and also to treat their child to full health.
According to the court documents seen by PML Daily, the couple states that Ms Mbabazi developed labour pains on April 8, 2016 and was rushed to Life Link Hospital where she was receiving anti natal care before for tenacities of giving birth.
However, on arrival at the hospital, Dr Ssozi who had been working on her was not around and that he only showed up the following day at 7:45pm after repeatedly promising that he would be arriving any time.
Documents also indicate that throughout the entire period, there was no other doctor on duty who could have attended to the victim’s mother and that even when they requested to be referred to another hospital they were denied claiming that Dr Ssozi was still coming until which showed negligence.
“On the 10th of April, 2016, the couple noticed that the baby had been put on oxygen and when they inquired from the medical personnel, they were told that the baby was going to be fine anytime but declined to release him from the nursery of the hospital,” couple states.
They add situation continued until 11pm when a certain lady informed them that their baby had a breathing problem and it had worsened and needed advanced breathing support equipment and that they were accordingly referred to International Hospital Kampala (IHK).
“At International Hospital Kampala, couple, was informed that their baby was born late hence he needed oxygen. They incurred exorbitant expenses for the said treatment of the X-rays, cranial ultra sound scan report, AP chest x-ray report, IHK out-patients assessment forms.” reads in part court documents
The couple goes on to say that on December 13, 2016, they obtained an EEC report regarding their baby from Dr J.S Byaruhanga, the senior consultant pediatrician at Children’s Medical Center, which indicated that their baby has epilepsy-post-HIE and cerebral palsy.
