Privy Council upholds $18m ruling for Nunez-Tesheira

A PRIVATE medical institution and a specialist doctor have lost their challenge against a court’s order that they must pay $18 million in compensation to former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira.

The issue was their negligence in the death of her husband, insurance executive Russell Tesheira, after a prostate operation in 2004.

In a single ruling on the appeals of Gulf View Medical and anaesthesiologist Dr Crisen Jendra Roopchand, Lords Reed, Sales, Hamblen, Stephens and Pentland on Tuesday dismissed all seven grounds raised by the institution and the doctor.

In April 2017, three Appeal Court judges ruled against Gulf View and Roopchand, who both appealed then High Court judge Justice Vasheist Kokaram’s ruling in 2015 that Tesheira’s death was caused by their negligence.

Kokaram awarded Nunez-Tesheira compensation of $18,034,722.33.

In a 109-page decision, Justices of Appeal Allan Mendonca, Prakash Moosai, and Judith Jones said they could not fault Kokaram’s original decision.

After examining the evidence, they too held that on a balance of probabilities, Tesheira’s death was caused by the negligence of Gulf View and Roopchand.

Jones, who wrote the decision, said Tesheira’s was not a case of death by excessive bleeding but death as a result of poor management of the bleeding, which led to a fluid overload in his body.

The Appeal Court accepted that the nurses who attended to Tesheira were not negligent, but held that there was an admission of non-delegable duty of care.

Tesheira, who was also a footballer, died hours after the operation on April 13, 2004.

Although the Appeal Court reversed several of Kokaram’s findings, they upheld his decision on causation and the quantum of compensation to be paid.

In their unanimous ruling, written by Lords Stephens and Pentland, the Privy Council described the Appeal Court ruling as “carefully reasoned and comprehensive.” They also held there were no grounds for them to go behind the previous courts’ (Kokaram’s and the Court of Appeal’s) ruling on the cause of Tesheira’s death.

In 2011, Kokaram dismissed the lawsuit at a preliminary stage after Nunez-Tesheira failed to meet two successive deadlines he set for filing of evidence against Gulf View, Roopchand, and urologist Dr Lester Goetz.

She appealed and the lawsuit was reinstated. In appealing the decision, Nunez-Tesheira came to an agreement with Goetz which saw him being removed from the lawsuit.

The hospital filed an action seeking to have Goetz contribute to the court-ordered compensation, but this was struck down and the Privy Council in June 2019 refused its application to include the urologist in its application, saying it lacked merit.

Gulf View Medical was represented by King’s Counsel Mary O’Rourke, David Boyle and Joseph Price. Roopchand was represented by Katherine Deal, KC. Nunez-Tesheira was represented by Douglas Mendes, SC.

Facts of the case

Insurance executive Russell Tesheira was admitted to Gulf View Medical on April 13, 2004, for a trans-urethral resection of the prostate (TURP), a type of elective surgery.

It was to be carried out by urological surgeon Dr Lester Goetz with Dr Crisen Jendra Roopchand as the anaesthetist.

The surgery was completed by 1.10 pm that day, and while being taken to a recovery room, nurses observed his urine was heavily stained with blood.

The bleeding could not be contained and at 3.30 pm, he was taken back to the operating theatre, where Goetz and Roophand attempted various medical and surgical procedures to try to stop the bleeding.

After many hours, the bleeding was brought under control, but too late to save Tesheira’s life. He died on the operating table at 11.30 pm while still under general anaesthetic.

The cause of death was certified as “irreversible shock with DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation).”

Tesheira was 53.