KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has ordered the government to pay more than RM2.28 million in damages to a teenager who suffered irreversible brain damage due to medical negligence during his birth at Kuala Lumpur Hospital 15 years ago.
Judicial Commissioner Gan Techiong made the ruling after finding the government vicariously liable for the negligent actions of a junior medical officer and the then-head of the hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department.
Gan struck an emotional chord in his judgment when describing the boy’s condition upon being brought to court during the trial.
The court noted that the plaintiff, diagnosed with the most severe level of cerebral palsy, could not even lift his head and required tube-feeding throughout his life.
“When the plaintiff was brought to court in a pram during the trial, most of those present in court, including myself, sitting as the trial judge, could not help feeling sad for him,” he said in his grounds of judgment dated May 6.
However, the judge said sympathy alone could not guide the court.
Gan stressed that any award must be based on law, not emotion, and calculated fairly so as not to place an unfair burden on taxpayers.
“I have no doubt that both experts felt sympathy for the plaintiff, too.
“However, with respect, it is incumbent upon us to detach ourselves emotionally when it comes to the professional evaluation of this case.
“I bear in mind that damages to be awarded to the plaintiff must be in accordance with legal principles and not sympathy.
“There should be no unjust enrichment of the plaintiff at the expense of taxpayers,” he said.
The suit was filed by the mother in January 2023 on behalf of the boy, who was born on Feb 11, 2010.
He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy after doctors failed to carry out an emergency caesarean within the recommended time.
The plaintiff argued that delays in the procedure deprived him of a fair chance at survival without brain damage, while the defendants maintained that a placental separation made the outcome inevitable.
Expert witnesses clashed over his life expectancy, with one projecting 44 years and another limiting it to 29.
The court ruled that the delay deprived the plaintiff of a fair chance of being born without severe complications, noting that the medical officers should have acted faster given the high-risk nature of the pregnancy.
On life expectancy, Gan fixed the maximum at 29 years, rejecting the plaintiff’s expert opinion of 44 years.
He said medical data showed the odds of survival beyond 29 were only 26 per cent.
“I am constrained to rule that there is no basis whatsoever to support an extrapolation beyond 29 years as the life expectancy of the plaintiff here.”
The judge awarded RM300,000 in general damages, RM458,400 in special damages, RM51,300 in pre-trial damages, and RM1.47 million for future general damages.
Gan also ordered interest of five per cent per annum on most of the sums but declined to grant aggravated damages, noting that the family had waited over a decade before filing the suit.
Lawyers Karhti Kanthabalan and Abigail Sarah Kumar appeared for the plaintiff while senior federal counsel Masriwani Mahmud acted for the government.
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