Hospital pays Shs10m to end five-year suit by baby
Ms Rosemary Namubiru in a dock at Buganda Road court during the hearing of a case in which she was accused of pricking a baby with a contaminated cannula. File photo
Kampala- A city hospital has agreed to pay Shs10 million in compensation to a juvenile who was pricked with a cannula that had already been used by a nurse living with HIV/Aids.
In a consent judgment signed yesterday, Victoria Medical Centre, located on Lumumba Avenue, Kampala, agreed to settle the five-year legal dispute.
“This money shall be paid in monthly instalments of Shs1million per month, starting on February 10, 2019. The first defendant (Victoria Medical Centre) has agreed to pay the above money without prejudice to her good defence to the claim and in no way admits any negligence of liability,” reads the consent judgment.
Ms Ruth Mushabe, the mother of the minor, had sued the hospital together with its then employee, Ms Rosemary Namubiru, accusing them of breach of contract and professional negligence, when the latter used an intravenous needle she had already used to prick the baby, well knowing that she was living with HIV/Aids.
In 2014, Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate Olive Kazaarwe handed Namubiru a three-year jail sentence after finding her guilty of criminal negligence that could have led to infecting the infant with the deadly disease.
She later appealed the sentence and was set free by High Court judge Rugadia Atwoki in November 2014 who argued that the trial magistrate had failed to properly evaluate the evidence on record.
However, Ms Mushabe successfully applied in the High Court Civil Division to have the case reinstated from where the hospital agreed to pay the Shs10 million compensation.
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