A High Court judge has lambasted a Pretoria hospital and its staff for causing permanent brain damage to a baby delivered using vacuum extraction and forceps.
Judge Hans-Joachim Fabricius made damning findings against the Netcare Femina Hospital, saying it had "substandard" record-keeping.
In a judgment handed down on Friday, Fabricius said: "I find that the negligence of the first defendant's (the hospital's) nursing staff was the sole cause of the cerebral palsy suffered by the baby."
The hospital staff failed to recognise that the mother was experiencing complications from prolonged labour and failed to expedite the birth by performing a Caesarean section.
Fabricius said the nurses had been negligent in administering pitocin, a uterine stimulant used to amplify the frequency and strength of contractions.
A Dr Pistorius, a foetal and maternal specialist, had told the court that the drug must be used with caution "because, as the uterine activity increases, it effectively has the downside of enhancing the limitation of oxygen to the foetus and retaining [carbon dioxide] in the contraction process".
Damages are to be determined.
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