A nurse who was verbally abused for years by a doctor who used vulgar language towards her is due to get R300 000 in damages from the hospital which failed to act against the medic despite her complaints.
In 2016, Tilana Louw, now a theatre manager at a private hospital in Bloemfontein, instituted a claim in the Bloemfontein High Court against Dr S P Grobler, who had made her life hell with his vicious words towards her.
Grobler died and Louw reached a confidential settlement with his estate. She, however, also claimed damages from the Netcare Universitas Hospital where both she and Grobler had worked. Louw’s claim against the hospital was based on the submission that she had laid numerous complaints against Grobler, without getting an appropriate response from the hospital.
While Louw was embroiled in legal proceedings with both Grobler (before his death) and the hospital for almost eight years, the hospital after the trial had finally started, tendered an apology to Louw, which was published in a newspaper.
The hospital also offered to pay her compensation of R300 000 for general damages and future medical costs. Louw accepted this compensation, but did not accept the apology, because she felt it was not sincere.
She also wanted the hospital group to, on a punitive scale, pay her legal costs, including the cost of the experts who testified on her behalf.
Louw told the court that despite the profanities (which she at first did not want to divulge in full to the court) hurled by Grobler, she was a devoted nurse.
She worked at Netcare as a surgical theatre manager from April 2005. Her job description entailed overseeing and managing the operating theatres.
When she started her job, she was warned by the then hospital manager, amongst others, that one of the surgeons, who conducted a private practice at Netcare and performed surgeries at the hospital, had an “aggressive type of personality”.
Louw soon got a taste of Grobler’s temper tantrums, as did numerous other employees who worked with him in the surgical theatres.
She said that Grobler verbally abused her from the start by hurling profanities, insults, blasphemous language and obscenities at her in the presence of other staff and even the public.
While Louw and the counsel for both parties omitted to mention the words uttered by Grobler, Judge Ilse van Rhyn said it was important to know the words. These included Grobler calling Louw “a p..s”, a “f….n bitch” as well as a “white k….” He often told her that he wanted to “bliksem” her.
Louw said notwithstanding the fact that it was common knowledge that he verbally abused her and other staff members, Netcare failed to seriously deal with the situation and Grobler simply continued. She forwarded the complaints to her seniors at Netcare but they remained largely unresolved.
Louw said she suffered severe psychological and psychiatric trauma as a result of the abuse. She testified that her sense of duty and pity for the patients, many of them cancer patients who were in dire need of urgent and timeous surgeries, forced her to endure the abuse.
She explained that several of the scrub nurses refused to work with Grobler and she would step in to assist him during surgery.
Louw said that she was told that Grobler was a so-called “money spinner” for the hospital
Netcare denied that it had breached its legal duty to Louw and said that when the grievances were brought to its attention, steps were taken against Grobler. It said the complaints were investigated and Grobler was told to apologise.
In its letter of settlement to Louw, the group apologised for the many years of distress and anguish she had suffered: “Netcare will always endeavour to take all reasonable steps in providing our employees with a conducive work environment…”
Judge van Rhyn commented that each of the numerous complaints submitted by the plaintiff or other employees, should at least have triggered an investigation of one kind or another, even if human resources, on an informal basis, endeavoured to resolve the issue where interpersonal conflict surfaced.
“This is of particular importance where people work in highly stressful situations (surgical theatre). Often interpersonal conflicts can be mediated and solved with an apology or reorganizing of the relationship, but if the issue is more serious some action is required. Netcare, however, in most instances failed to act under these circumstances,” she said.
Pretoria News