Cheryl Ann Ringelstein v Metro North Hospital and Health Service
[2025] QSC 75 · Martin SJA
Cheryl Ringelstein underwent a hysterectomy and repair operation at Caboolture Hospital in June 2004. She suffered serious complications, including internal fistulae that led to years of further surgeries, incontinence and depression. She blamed the original surgery for her ongoing problems. She consulted lawyers in 2008 and 2010 but could not afford the fees needed to get an expert report, so no claim was ever started. In 2022 a hospital representative told her that what had happened to her should not have happened, and she was later given expert reports supporting a negligence case. She began court proceedings in June 2023, nearly twenty years after the surgery, and applied to extend the time limit for suing. The court refused the extension. The judge found that, even allowing for her difficult circumstances, she had known since 2009 or 2010 that the time limit had passed and that she needed to act quickly, yet did nothing for around twelve years. Because the extension was refused, her negligence claim cannot go forward.
Incident & injury
Complications following total abdominal hysterectomy and posterior repair, alleged to have been performed negligently, resulting in recto-vaginal and vesico-vaginal fistulae and multiple further surgeries
- Body regions
- Abdomen / pelvis, Gynaecological/pelvic, Urinary, Psychiatric
- Diagnoses
- Rectovaginal fistula, Vesico-vaginal fistula, Sigmoid loop colostomy (stoma), Urinary incontinence, Depression
- Incident date
- 15 June 2004
- Location
- Caboolture Hospital, Queensland
Quick facts
- Date of judgment
- 17 April 2025
- Claim type
- PIPA Medical Negligence
- Proceeding
- Interlocutory
- Plaintiff outcome
- Unsuccessful
- Plaintiff age at injury
- ~47 (inferred)
- Occupation
- succession of jobs which did not require particular qualifications; finished education at year 10
Outcome
The applicant's s 31 application to extend the limitation period was dismissed because, despite her personal circumstances, she failed to take all reasonable steps to ascertain the material facts of a decisive character; she had been on notice since at least 2009–2010 that the limitation period had expired and that urgent action was required, yet did nothing for approximately 12 years.
Key issues
Cheryl Ann Ringelstein v Metro North Hospital and Health Service [2025] QSC 75
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