Blouberg, Blaauwberg, Cape Town – South Africa

A sunny lunch party at a hip restaurant took a nightmarish turn when Bernice van Eck was knocked out by a falling metal pole.The 34-year-old fashion consultant and her friends were eating sushi at one of Cape Town’s top seafood restaurants when a 3.5m pole propping up a canopy covering the patio fell and hit her on the head.

The incident has apparently ruined the once bubbly socialite’s life and has left her with excruciating pain, anxiety, blackouts and amnesia for the past two years.

Van Eck sold her house to pay bills from neurologists, physiotherapists and psychologists and is now locked in a court battle with Blowfish, claiming more than R1-million in damages.

In papers filed at the Cape High Court, Van Eck submits that the Blowfish Restaurant in Bloubergstrand was negligent by failing to secure the poles when the incident happened on September 26 2006. But the restaurant has denied liability, claiming she was negligent “by failing to keep a proper lookout for any sign of the pole falling”.

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