This was because the injection had gone into the sacral nerve. The woman fainted and had an epileptic fit that was so violent it resulted in the prolapse of one of the discs in her lower spine.
Neurosurgeon Hans Relling‚ who treated the woman after the injection in 2006‚ told the court her disc was “shattered in the same fashion as a glass of wine which is dropped”.
Once the injection was given in the left buttock‚ the woman felt excruciating pain and ringing in her ears because her brain was “bombarded by a very potent sensory stimulus”. She suffered a grand mal seizure‚ which typically involved incontinence‚ shaking of limbs and loss of consciousness.
Mathebula said: “Her history is that she had not suffered any attack in her life prior to the day in question. She could have easily lived her whole life without suffering an epileptic fit. This was triggered by the injection into the nerve.”