'Absolutely Appalling'...Supreme Court awards St Elizabeth woman over $10M in medical negligence case against gov’t

The Government has been ordered to pay more than $10 million in damages to a St Elizabeth woman over negligent medical care she allegedly received from a doctor at a public clinic in the parish, which left her in pain for months.

June Hyman was awarded $7.9 million in general damages, with interest at three per cent from August 2013 to September this year, and special damages of US$16,312 (approximately J$2.5 million) and $271,604 following an assessment of damages hearing in the Supreme Court on October 9.

The Supreme Court had previously handed down judgment in Hyman's favour on September 30 this year in a lawsuit she filed against the State for negligence.

The lawsuit stems from two visits Hyman made to the Junction Comprehensive Clinic on April 26 and May 5, 2010, to have her wisdom tooth extracted by Dr Gillian Allen and to receive follow-up care, according to the judgment in the assessment of damages hearing, which is posted on the court's website.

The Southern Regional Health Authority and the Attorney General of Jamaica were the listed defendants in the lawsuit.

Justice Kirk Anderson, who presided over the assessment of damages hearing, noted that evidence from an expert witness for the defendants revealed that Dr Allen had recorded in paperwork at the clinic that she recognised Hyman had a “detrimental dental condition” known as periodontal disease.

However, according to Anderson, Hyman was never informed of this by Dr Allen, and no X-rays of her mouth were ordered or suggested, “nor even remotely recommended to be done”.

“Thus, the claimant [Hyman] has been awarded judgment against the defendants for damages for negligence,” the judge wrote in his 13-page ruling.

“I have accepted that said negligence caused the claimant, for quite some time, to be unable to properly open her mouth. Surgery in her mouth had to be done in order to rectify that the [sic] existing inability of her.”

The judge also noted that Hyman was hospitalised to undergo treatment and, at one stage, was taking between 19 and 20 pills a day as part of her prescribed medical and dental treatment for the pain she endured.

“The claimant experienced infection in her mouth and it was her unchallenged evidence that ‘pus’ had to be discharged from her mouth while she was then a patient at Mandeville Regional Hospital,” he said.

The judge was also critical of Hyman's overall treatment “by several different members of the medical, in particular, the dentistry profession”, describing it as “absolutely appalling”.

“That, though, all began with the negligent treatment of the claimant on April 26, 2010 at the hands of Dr Gillian Allen, who was then a dentist working at the Junction Comprehensive Clinic. That is why the claimant’s claim for damages for negligence, brought against the defendants, has succeeded,” he wrote.

- Livern Barrett

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