The Government is to pay $18 million in damages to a man whose left foot was amputated above the knee because of a lack of proper medical care while he was a patient at the Spaldings Hospital in Clarendon.

Omar Anderson, 27, of Chudleigh, Manchester, brought the suit against the Southern Regional Health Authority. The government accepted liability after the Medical Council of Jamaica gave an opinion as to the cause of the amputation.

Anderson's lawyers had applied to the Supreme Court for the medical records to be sent to the Medical Council for an expert opinion.

Filed suit

Anderson, who is now living in the United States, filed a negligence suit against the health authority.

He said that on June 20, 1999, while he was living in Chudleigh, he stepped on a butcher's knife which injured his ankle. He was taken to the Spaldings Hospital where the wound to his ankle was sutured and he was hospitalised.

He said he continued feeling severe pain in the ankle and asked the hospital authorities to transfer him to the Kingston Public Hospital, but his request was refused.

He subsequently lost sensation in his left foot and within 36 hours after being admitted, his left foot had to be amputated above the knee.

Justice Martin Gayle assessed damages and awarded Anderson $6 million for general damages, which included pain and suffering, and US$171,000 for future medical costs.