Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday September 21, 2003
Nashira Davids and Sphiwe Maphumulo
The Nelspruit woman is also taking on the Health Professions Council of South Africa after it ruled that her doctor's conduct was not "improper or disgraceful".
The woman, identified only as VRM, appeared in the Pretoria High Court this week to appeal against a court ruling that the council was correct not to censure Dr Elardus Labuschagne for acting unethically and failing to follow medical guidelines on HIV testing and disclosure.
In court papers, the woman said Labuschagne's failure to alert her to her HIV status denied her the chance to use antiretroviral drugs to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to her baby - who was subsequently stillborn as a result of HIV complications. She also argued that she had endangered her then-husband's life by failing to practise safe sex.
The clerical worker's nightmare started on January 29 1999 when she went to see Labuschagne when she was six months pregnant. She claimed Labuschagne took blood without her consent and sent it for tests.
About two months later, she said, she received an account for an HIV test. When she and her husband confronted Labuschagne, he denied the test had anything to do with Aids and said their medical aid had been charged for the test by "mistake".
Despite experts advising that babies of HIV-positive women be delivered by Caesarean to reduce the risk of transmission, the woman said Labuschagne let her languish in labour for three days before performing a Caesarean.
The next day, while she was coming to terms with the loss of her first child, Labuschagne visited her in hospital and dropped the bombshell that she was HIV-positive and that the baby had died due to HIV.
The woman said Labuschagne had also informed her husband of her HIV status "without her consent". Her husband later tested HIV-negative.
The woman said she approached the Aids Law Project, which asked the Health Professions Council to investigate Labuschagne. But the council found he had not acted improperly and resolved that "no further steps be taken".
The project then applied to the Pretoria High Court to have the council's decision set aside, but the court found there was little the woman could have done had she known she was HIV-positive at that stage of her pregnancy. The project decided to appeal.
In court papers, Labuschagne denied taking the woman's blood without her consent. But he admitted not disclosing her status to her because he did not want to "tell her that she was going to die".
The council said in court papers that where there was "deviation from the guidelines, Dr Labuschagne gave a reasonable explanation which was accepted", but did not say what it was. Judgment was reserved.
Speaking from his practice in Louis Trichardt, Labuschagne said the woman was his first HIV case and he had tried his best to help her.
"She was my first HIV patient and it was her first baby," he said. "I felt so sorry for her and I treated her with the utmost care. It is a bit of a kick in the teeth after the care I gave her."
Shortly after the woman gave birth, her husband filed for divorce and she was left to deal with the loss of both her child and husband. But, she told the Sunday Times, she was optimistic about the future.
"I'm working, I'm getting regular counselling and I'm still healthy, so I don't need antiretrovirals yet," she said. " I have a supportive employer who arranged for peer counselling and a good medical aid that will pay for antiretrovirals when I need them."
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