A popular Nelson Mandela Bay surgeon is facing a multimillion-rand lawsuit for an operation he performed six years ago on a woman who claims she has been left with major scars, damage to her stomach and various physical impediments.
Sherwood resident Sherillee Morris, 59, is suing specialist surgeon Dr Nico van Niekerk, based at Netcare Greenacres Hospital, for what she says are years of suffering after having to undergo surgery to fix what was meant to be one operation to repair a recurrent hiatus hernia.
Morris is claiming R4,401,713.84 in damages.
She accuses Van Niekerk of medical negligence, which he denies.
Van Niekerk, in court papers, said he rendered services of a standard reasonably expected of a doctor in his position.
He has challenged Morris to prove her claims.
The two are expected to face off in a civil trial in the high court in Gqeberha on Monday.
In court documents, Morris claims that Van Niekerk “lost his way” while performing the operation.
As a result, she claims, she suffered sudden and severe bleeding which had to be corrected by emergency open chest surgery.
Morris was employed as a senior administrative officer at the Eastern Cape department of health at the time of the initial operation in May 2015.
She says that during the initial surgery, she suffered an injury to her supra-hepatic inferior vena cava which led to sudden and severe bleeding in her chest cavity.
A specialist cardiothoracic surgeon was called to perform an emergency left-sided thoracotomy. Failing which, Morris would have bled to death, court papers claim.
She subsequently lost 300 millilitres of blood, had to be resuscitated, given a blood transfusion and suffered a hypovolemic shock which could have led to organ failure.
Morris was moved to the ICU at Netcare Greenacres Hospital for more than a week and had to undergo further surgery to correct her incarcerated hiatus hernia on June 7 2015.
This time she suffered a tear to her stomach.
After her second operation, Morris was again transferred to the ICU, where she stayed until July 13, before being moved to a general ward until July 27 2015, when she was admitted to Aurora Hospital where she stayed until September 7.
The court papers state that Morris consequently suffered mild expressive and receptive aphasia, suffered a language impairment which affected her everyday functions, and struggled to respond to visual cues and could only identify objects and not letters.
She wobbled when she walked and needed assistance or supervision when walking.
Morris has since needed occupational, speech, psycho and physiotherapy.
It is claimed Morris endured intense pain and suffering and a loss of amenities of life, she also lost her job as a consequence because she had to be medically boarded.
Morris alleges that Van Niekerk was negligent in that he failed to refer her to a gastroenterologist to rule out any other underlying precipitating factors and did not conduct further investigations before deciding to do the surgery.
Morris, who is represented by prominent Bay attorney, Lunen Meyer, said Van Niekerk failed to appreciate the complex nature of the initial surgery and did not take any or adequate steps to prevent complications during the surgery.
There was also no assistance of an additional specialist surgeon during the initial surgery and no-one suitably qualified or experienced to operate the video camera used during the procedure, it states in the court papers. .
It is alleged that Van Niekerk only enlisted a general practitioner who had to perform two tasks simultaneously, namely surgical assistance and operating the camera.
it is alleged that during her second surgery, Van Niekerk used the incorrect technique which caused a tear in Morris’s stomach.
In his plea submitted to the court, Van Niekerk denied acting negligently, saying he had rendered specialist surgical services of a standard reasonably expected from a doctor in his position.
Van Niekerk also requested proof for a list of allegations levelled against him by Morris, including that his actions were negligent and that he did not perform the surgeries at an acceptable level.
Qualified as a general surgeon, Van Niekerk has special interests in laparoscopic surgery which is a relatively low-risk and minimally invasive procedure that requires only small incisions to look at the abdominal organs.
The proper use of a camera is used in this type of surgery.
Reports from a variety of specialists have also been submitted to the court as evidence of Morris’s claim which led to her being medically boarded in July 2019.
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