Woman with swab left in stomach has compensation cut from €119,605 to €46,095
Appeals court uses the minimum wage, not the average wage, to calculate a housewife's income
A woman who suffered trauma after a large swab was left in her stomach for three months after an operation at Mater Dei Hospital has seen compensation awarded by the courts reduced from €119,605 to €46,095.65c.
In a judgement delivered on Tuesday, the court said that while it respected the value of the work done by housewives, the calculation of compensation had to be worked out on the basis of the minimum wage not the average wage. The court also calculated a lower permanent disability.
The woman, Mary Vassallo, underwent Laporoscopic converted to open Cholecystectomy in 2014. She subsequently complained of persistent pain and pus which prevented her from carrying on with normal life. After numerous visits to hospital and health centres, the square 10-inch swab was discovered and pulled out by a nurse at a health centre.
The hospital authorities offered compensation of €20,000, which the woman rejected as being 'miserable'
She sued the doctors and Mater Dei Hospital.
The first court upheld her pleas that the swab had been mistakenly left inside her during the surgery and she had suffered three months of wound debisecence and persisting oozing. It ordered the hospital authorities to pay her compensation of €119,605.
The hospital authorities appealed.
The appeals court confirmed the findings of the first court that the swab had been left in the woman's stomach during the operation at Mater Dei Hospital.
The court, however, upheld pleas for a revision of the compensation.
It ruled that the woman had suffered a disability of 34% compared to 40% decided by the first court.
It said that the woman's income, as a housewife, had to be calculated on the basis of the minimum wage, as laid down by caselaw, even though it had every respect for this nature of work. The minimum wage in 2014, when the operation took place, was €8,615.36c annually. (The first court had calculated an income of €1700 monthly).
The appeals court therefore ruled that the woman should be awarded compensation of €46,095.65c.