STAFF WRITER
THE High Court has cleared Avenues Clinic, Harare, of blame after a patient fell from his hospital bed and tragically died.
In a recent judgment, Justice Mary Zimba Dube ruled that the family of the late Francis Nyadundu failed to prove that the hospital was legally negligent.
The family had sued the clinic for US$520 000, arguing that nurses left the patient unattended and failed to respond properly after he fell.
However, the court found that the plaintiffs did not provide expert medical testimony to prove how the hospital’s actions directly caused the fatal head injuries, especially given the patient’s serious pre-existing health conditions.
The court emphasised that expert medical evidence is strictly required in such complex cases:
“A fall alone in a hospital setting resulting in death of a patient cannot raise inferences of negligence without exploring the circumstances of the fall and evidence from a medical expert which serves to appraise the court of the standard expected and to measure the defendant’s conduct against the standard,” the court adjudged.
Justice Dube noted that the deceased, Nyadundu, had been admitted under the care of a specialist physician in March 2024 after being diagnosed with liver cirrhosis.
On the night of March 10, 2024, he fell from his hospital bed and subsequently passed away from a subarachnoid haemorrhage, skull vault fracture, and head trauma.
His family argued that nurses were aware of his restlessness, having administered a sedative and raised bed rails to prevent a fall, yet failed to monitor him adequately.
The court evaluated the legal framework governing medical negligence, noting that a hospital admission creates a duty of care, but plaintiffs must establish both standard violations and factual causation.
The judgment addressed the plaintiffs’ reliance on the res ipsa loquitur rule—the principle that “the thing speaks for itself”—ruling that it does not apply in complex medical cases requiring specialist clinical interpretation.
“It is undesirable to apply the res ipsa loquitur rule in complex cases requiring consideration of pharmaceutical interactions, issues of pathology and the anatomy of the human body etc. to determine breach,” the court explained.
Furthermore, the court highlighted that the plaintiffs failed to call a forensic pathologist or medical expert to rule out pre-existing conditions and link the fall directly to the death.
Because the family could not provide professional medical proof connecting the hospital’s actions to the fatal outcome, the judge granted the clinic’s request for absolution from the instance and ordered the plaintiffs to pay the legal costs.
Family loses lawsuit over hospital death
