The High Court awarded the sum following an assessment of damages after the government conceded liability in a suit filed in 2021.
The Johor Bahru High Court has ordered the government to pay approximately RM400,000 in damages to a dance instructor after ruling in her favour in a medical negligence suit following an assessment of damages on Tuesday.
The case stemmed from a surgery six years ago in which both her ovaries and fallopian tubes were removed.
Justice Shamsulbahri Ibrahim awarded the 48-year-old woman RM400,815.45 overall, including RM300,000 for pain and suffering.
She also succeeded in recovering RM35,000 for loss of earnings over a period of 21 months, reimbursement of RM9,652.50, being the cost of treatment received in India, and expenses for travel and accommodation incurred.
The suit, filed in 2021, named the government, the director of the Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor Bahru and five doctors who were involved in surgery carried out on the woman on Dec 24, 2018.
The government admitted liability, leaving only damages to be assessed by the court.
The woman had been admitted for an abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy surgery.
Following the surgery, she discovered blood in her urine. She also developed a stomach ache and breathing difficulties, and had to be given a blood transfusion as she was suspected to have suffered a bladder injury.
The woman then underwent another exploratory surgery on Dec 31, 2018 and was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit to treat internal bleeding.
Although discharged, she continued to suffer from urine incontinence, vaginal leakage and other complications which continued for several weeks.
She was scheduled to be referred to the urology department at Hospital Sultanah Aminah.
On Feb 18, 2019, she sought a second opinion from a hospital in Chennai, India, which found a bladder tear extending to the vagina, suggestive of vesicovaginal fistula (VVF).
She shared the examination results with the Sultan Ismail Hospital.
Following the failure of conservative treatment over several months, she was advised to undergo corrective surgery in September 2019. Despite the surgery, she continued to develop vaginal leakage and a recurrence of VVF.
She was then advised that further corrective surgery would be required in future.
The woman sought treatment and surgery in Chennai, India, which resolved her health issues.
She was represented by lawyers R Jayabalan and Christopher Tan while senior federal counsel Barath Manian appeared for the government.
By V Anbalagan
