Kowie woman sues PE hospital for R2.3m

A PORT Alfred woman who inhaled a small piece of cork while in a coma is suing a Port Elizabeth private hospital and physician for more than R2-million, claiming they caused seven years of debilitating illness and financial disaster when she was unable to work.

Elsie Etsebeth, who turns 60 next month, claims nobody noticed that the tiny 1cm cap which had been used to plug a breathing tube had disappeared.

It lodged in a lung and although a surgeon finally spotted the object, it was only identified as a cork cap when Etsebeth unexpectedly coughed it up seven years later.

Etsebeth's legal team, led by Port Elizabeth lawyer Lunen Meyer, said in papers before court that while the piece of cork was in her lung, she fought a desperate seven-year battle to regain her health.

She has now sued Life St George's Hospital and the attending physician, Dr Gregory Musson, for R2.3-million.