A KZN doctor has denied unprofessional conduct after he allegedly injected a patient in a nerve, possibly causing irreparable damage, saying the patient “demanded it”.
|||Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal doctor has pleaded not guilty to charges of unprofessional conduct after he allegedly injected a patient in a nerve, possibly causing irreparable damage, saying the patient “demanded it”.
Dr Mahdevan Pillay, a general practitioner who has his practice in Mtubatuba on the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast, was appearing before a hearing of the Health Professions Council of South Africa on Thursday.
It is alleged he failed to take due care while administering a Voltaren injection to Cornelius de Wilde, 78.
This occurred in 2011 when De Wilde visited Pillay, his family doctor, to have his blood-sugar level checked and receive treatment for pain in his right calf.
Led by the council’s advocate, Meshack Mapholisa, De Wilde stood up as he demonstrated to the hearing the position he was in when the doctor gave him the injection in the buttocks. “As soon as he injected me, I felt an incredible pain, my whole body jerked and I just about passed out, falling on the bed.”
The committee heard that after lying down for a while, he recovered enough to “hobble” to his car. His son drove him home to St Lucia. “I could hardly walk when I left the consultation room. My right leg was half-dead and extremely painful,” he said.
Reading from his letter of complaint to the council, De Wilde said: “The pain was unbearable. I could not sleep. I had to support my leg with my hands to get into bed. It felt like a piece of dead meat.”
Cross-examined by Pillay’s attorney, Altus Janse van Rensburg, De Wilde testified he could not recall if he or the doctor had suggested the injection.
De Wilde said he had not fully recovered, with the skin still numb and the sole of his foot terribly sensitive.
“Walking is terribly painful and I can’t walk far. I used do a lot of walking on the beach. My quality of life has changed.”
This, De Wilde believed, warranted compensation.
However, he denied Janse van Rensburg’s assertion that he had demanded R1 040 from Pillay.
Chuckling, De Wilde said this was “ridiculous, I would never do something like that. Besides if I wanted money for the pain, Pillay does not have enough for the pain I felt”.
Doctor and patient spoke that night as well as the day after, when Pillay referred De Wilde to a neurologist.
According to the council’s expert witness, Dr Swamiji Ananth, this showed Pillay had “appreciated the gravity and seriousness of the injury”. Ananth testified that the incident had been unfortunate for doctor and patient.
He believed Pillay had not intentionally injected the nerve and had done well in providing post-injury treatment, but said: “No matter what the patient asks for, the doctor should not give it if he is not convinced. He has a duty and is entirely responsible for the side effects.”
Testifying in his own defence, Pillay, who has more than 20 years’ experience as a general practitioner, said De Wilde had asked for the injection, saying he had had it hundreds of times before.
Although Voltaren was appropriate for the treatment of De Wilde’s painful calf, he would have preferred to dispense it in tablet or suppository form.
Under cross-examination, he conceded he “must have caused damage” to the nerve.