Pretoria – There were tears of joy in the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday after a claim of R2.8m was awarded to a girl who lost her legs as a 2-year-old due to poor treatment at a state hospital.
Tembisa Kometsi, now 6, and her twin sister Thembakazi each hugged the leg of the family’s lawyer Olof Joubert after hearing the judge’s ruling, reported Beeld.
Joubert said: “It was amazing. There were tears. It was really special because the family is in dire circumstances.”
Tembisa Kometsi from Daveyton was badly burnt with boiling water in 2009 and staff at the Verre East Rand hospital was found to have been negligent in their treatment of her, which led to gangrene and caused her to lose her legs.
The little girl received prosthetic legs a month ago but these had still not been paid for.
“The twins are happy, because they are now the same again. They are the same length,” said children’s mother, Celina Kometsi.
The girls’ mother works as a seamstress and their father is a carpenter.
Some legal claims with the health department are still pending.
