€69,500 damages for MRSA infection confirmed on appeal, 17 years later

A 17-year court saga ended yesterday with the Court of Appeal confirming an earlier award of €69,561.65 in damages to a patient who was left a paraplegic after contracting the MRSA “superbug” during a 2007 hospital stay.

In a decision handed down yesterday, the Court of Appeal presided by Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti and judges Giannino Caruana Demajo and Anthony Ellul dismissed the Government’s Principal Medical Officer’s appeal against the 2019 judgement and found the defendants liable in damages to the Carmela Bouharis and her husband,Abdelkrim, who had originally filed the case against the Director General of the Health Service.

Sadly, the patient who had suffered the infection, Carmela Bouharis, did not live to see her court victory, having passed away while the proceedings were still ongoing. 

Bouharis had been 48 when she was referred to the emergency department at St. Luke’s Hospital on 9 February 2007, suffering from nausea, dizziness and dehydration.

Medical staff had placed her on a drip and before long, a dark, round bruise had formed around the needle insertion site, where a yellowish liquid had also started to accumulate. 

On 24 February 2007, the woman had collapsed while attempting to get out of bed to go shower, after her legs gave way. She told doctors that she had noticed a yellowish liquid coming out of her arm after she fell and was found to have been infected with the MRSA superbug, with the infection having already spread to her spine.

She had been rushed into surgery and operated upon on the same day, but surgeons discovered that the infection had already established itself in her body. Bouharis spent a month in a hospital bed, unable to move and was told that she would spend the rest of her life using a walking frame, incontinent and unable to traverse stairs unaided.

In 2019- 12 years after the case was filed, the First Hall of the Civil Court, presided by Mr. Justice Joseph R. Micallef had upheld her claim for damages, awarding her €69,561.65.

From the testimonies of several medical doctors and consultants, it emerged that such was the speed of its spread, it was difficult to ascertain when Bouharis had originally contracted the infection and whether she had caught it while in the hospital or previously, from the community.

However, the Court also noted that in their testimony, as well as that given by the court appointed medical expert, it was apparent that hospital staff had failed to take timely action when pus was observed on her arm. It was also noted that MRSA had been reported several times at the overcrowded hospital whose conditions would have facilitated the spread of the MRSA bacteria.

One doctor told the court that, at the time, St. Luke’s had a higher incidence of MRSA when compared to other European hospitals. Another had testified that the bacteria tended to spread more easily in hospitals than in the community.

In their judgement confirming the liability established by the previous court, the judges said that although the date and place of Bouharis’ initial infection with MRSA could not be definitively established, it could not be disputed that she would have been diagnosed much faster- and would have suffered far less severe consequences as a consequence - had a blood test been carried out at an earlier stage.

The plaintiffs were represented by lawyers David Camilleri and Jose Herrera.